Glass. _ 

Book ■ A l"P.4. 



THE CANADIAN 

Methodist Pulpit: 



LIVING MINISTERS OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST 
CHURCH IN CANADA, 

WITH 

AN INTRODUCTION 
BY REV. EDWARD HARTLEY DEWART, 



REV. SAMUEL G. PHILLIPS, Editor. 



TORONTO : 
HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY. 

MONTREAL : W. DRYSDALE AND CO. 
l87S- 



Entered according to Act of the Parliament of the Dominion of 
Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, 
by Samuel G. Phillips, in the office of the Minister of Agri- 
culture . 



^4 1^^ 
is 



PREFACE. 




$ HE publication of this volume has met the 
approval of the best men of our Church, as 
will be seen by the names of the contributors. 
To secure the number of sermons necessary- 
has been no small task, as most of the minis- 
ters of the great Methodist Church do not 
write, nor preserve their sermons, Having, however, 
succeeded thus far, and believing that such a volume 
will be a valuable accession to any Christian library, 
I have been induced to proceed with the work. 

The sermons are of a high order, and while they con- 
tain the peculiar views of the Methodists, they breathe the 
spirit of charity toward all ; and the work might not be 
out of place in any Christian household. 

To our own people, for Sabbath and leisure-hour read- 
ing, its value cannot be over-estimated. With conn dence 
that it will do good, we send it forth upon the great ocean 
of religious literature, and, that God may direct it whither- 
soever He will, is the prayer of 

THE EDITOR. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

INTRODUCTION. 
Rev. Edward H. Dewart, Ed. of Christian Guardian, ix 

SERMON I. 
By Rev. W. Morley PuNSHON, M.A., LL.D. 
Broken Cisterns. — (Jer. ii. 13.) : 1 

SERMON II. 
By Rev. E. Ryerson, D.D., Chief Superintendent of 
Education. 

A good man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. — 

(Acts xi 24.) .... 23 

SERMON III. 
By Rev. E. Ryerson, D.D. 
Christians on Earth and in Heaven. — (Heb. xii. 23.) ... 56 

SERMON IV. 
By Rev. J. Borland, of St. Johns. 
Christian Perfection. — (Phil, iii., 12-15.) •••• $4 

SERMON V. 
By Rev. W. Stephenson, of Hamilton. 
Angels studying Redemption. — (1 Peter i. 11, 12.) ....... 99 



Contents. 



SERMON VI. 

By Rev. J. Carroll. 
A Trinity of Indispensables to Church Integrity and 

Prosperity. — (2 Chron. vi. 41.) 122 

SERMON VII. 

By Rev. W. Galbraith, of Montreal. 
The Glorious Ascension and Triumphant Reign of Jesus 

Christ. — (Psalm lxviii. 18.)..... , 133 

t SERMON VIII. 

By Rev. F. Bland. 
The Custody of the Heart. — (Prov. iv. 23.) 150 

SERMON IX. 

By Rev. W. S. Blackstock, of Napanee. 
Christ our Passover. — (1 Cor. v. 7, 8.) 166 

SERMON X. 

By Rev. J. Graham, of Goderich. 
Battle for the Gospel Faith, the Duty of the Church. — 

(Phil. i. 27, 28.)..... . 186 

SERMON XI. 

K By Rev. C. Fish, of Peterborough. 
Manna. — (Exo. xvi. 14, 15.) 212 

SERMON XII. 

By Rev. W. J. Hunter, of Ottawa. 
The Family of God.— (Eph. iii. 15.) 227 

SERMON XIII. 

By Rev. C. Freshman, D.D. 
The Christian Sabbath. — Psalm cxviii. 24.) 242 



Contents. \ vii 

SERMON XIV. 
By Rev. A. Raynar, M.A., Professor of Modern Lan- 
guages and English Literature. 
Knowledge is Life. — (St. John xvii. 3.) 250 

SERMON XV. 
By Rev. J. Roy, M.A., Principal of Cobourg Colle- 
giate Institute. 

The Impartiality of God's Love. — (Eph. vi. 7, 8.) 266 

SERMON XVI. 
By Rev. Leroy Hooker, of Coaticook. 
The Mission of Jesus. — (St. John x. 10.) 273 

SERMON XVII. 
By Rev. E. A. Stafford, of Montreal 
Glorying in Religion. — (Jeremiah ix. 23.) 291 

SERMON XVIII. 
By Rev. C. S. Eby, B.A., of Hamilton, German Mis- 
sionary. 

The Gospel View of Tribulation. — (Rom. v. 2-5.) ....... 304 



SERMON XIX. 
By Rev. George Douglass, LL.D., Principal and Pro- 
fessor of Theology, Montreal. 
The Power of the Gospel. — (1 Thes. L 5.) 319 

SERMON XX. 
By Rev. W. Williams, of Hespelen 
The Spiritual Life. — (Eph. ii. 20-22.) ..<,. 333 

SERMON XXI. 
By Rev. David Savage, President of New Connection 

Conference and Editor of the Evangelical Witness. 
Church Order a Means, not an End. — (1 Cor. iii. 6. 

1 Thes. i. 6. Heb. xii. 27, 28.) 346 



viii Contents* 

SERMON XXIL 
By Rev. E. B. Ryckman, M. A., Governor of the Wes- 
tern Collegiate Institute, Dundas. 
The Power of Christ the Missionary's Strength. — (Matt. 

xxviii. 1 8, 19.) 356 

SERMON XXIII. 

By Rev. Henry Pope, Jr., President of New Bruns- 
wick and Prince Edward Island Conferences. 
Preaching Christ. —(Col. i. 28.) . 373 

ADDRESS. 
By Rev. A. Sutherland. 
Some Distinctive Features of Wesleyan Theology 396 



INTRODUCTION. 




^HETHER considered with respect to its 
origin, its history, its object, or its relation 
to other benevolent agencies, the teaching 
of the Christian pulpit justly claims a front 
rank among the most potent forces of our 
modern civilization. In claiming this 
place for the pulpit, we have no sympathy with the priestly 
claims of a certain class of preachers, and no desire to 
exalt the work of the ministry above the position which 
the divine arrangement and its own achievements in the 
world fairly claim for it. The preaching of the truths of 
the gospel by men whose own hearts have been quick- 
ened by its power, is no mere human invention. It is an 
ordinance of God's appointment, clearly stamped with 
tokens of Divine authority and approbation. In the Old 
Testament, we read of prophets and messengers raised 
up by God to rebuke the sins and follies of their times, 
and call back the faithless and recreant multitudes from 
irrational idolatry and unbelief to the worship of the one 
living and true God. But, in the New Testament, the 



Introduction. 



office of the preacher is lifted into still greater promi- 
nence, by being made the chief agency through which the 
tidings of life and salvation through Christ, are made 
known to a guilty and lost world. Before His ascension, 
the Risen Saviour made provision that a continous testi- 
mony should be borne in the world for His name by chosen 
witnesses, who were anointed with power from on high, 
to qualify them for this special work. The Apostles were 
divinely authorized to " teach all nations/' baptizing them 
in the name of the Triune God. The greatest of the 
apostles counted it his highest honour, that to him the 
grace was given to " preach among the Gentiles the un- 
searchable riches of Christ," and he explicitly tells us, 
that, " it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to 
save them that believe." Whatever may have been spe- 
cial and temporary in the apostolic office, the work of 
preaching Christ, as the only hope of perishing sinners, 
was to be permanent as the Church itself. The apostolic 
idea of the perpetuity of this office and work is clearly 
indicated by St. Paul, when he exhorts Timothy, his son in 
the gospel, saying : " And the things that thou hast heard 
of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to 
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." An 
ordinance so evidently chosen and appointed by God for 
a great purpose, and so intimately connected with the 
growth and stability of Christianity in the world, is not 
a mere arbitrary and temporary arrangement ; but pos- 
sesses an intrinsic and divine fitness for the accomplish- 
ment of its exalted and holy mission, which is a pledge 
and proof of its enduring power. 

The history of the Christian pulpit presents a convincing 



Introduction. 



xi 



indication of this adaptation to enlighten the world's 
ignorance, by the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus ; 
and to bring guilty men from the slavery and defilement 
of sin into the enjoyment of the life and liberty of salva- 
tion. It is the history of the noblest spirits of the Chris- 
tian centuries — the history of the growth of theological 
thought in different countries, and of the conflicts and 
successes of the Christian religion in the world. The 
pulpit has borne the standard of religion in the vanguard 
of intelligence, civilization and social progress. And so 
vitally has it been associated with the moral and intellec- 
tual condition of the people, and so great has been its 
influence in the formation of opinion and character, that 
its condition whether for good or evil has never failed to 
be reflected back by the community. When the standard 
of moral action, or religious life, presented from the pul- 
pit has been low or defective, the spiritual condition of 
the people has exhibited a corresponding degeneracy. 
When the high requirements of scriptural morality, and 
the precious privileges of a full gospel salvation have been 
faithfully enforced by the teachings of the pulpit, the 
church has never failed to display corresponding growth 
in grace and spiritual manhood. Indeed, so intimately 
has the position and influence of the pulpit depended 
upon the fulness and faithfulness with which it has pro- 
claimed the whole counsel of God, that wherever a formal 
and ceremonial type of religion has prevailed, the teach- 
ing of the pulpit has been thrust into the back ground, 
and its power has proportionally declined. The most 
striking illustrations of the power of the Christian pulpit 
has been associated with the most faithful and full presen- 
tation of the great truths of the gospel. 



Xll 



Introduction. 



All along the Christian centuries, the pulpit has held 
aloft the torch of truth to dispel the surrounding gloom. 
Even in the darkest s days of the Church the clergy were 
the chief conservators of the learning and piety of the 
times. From the day of Pentecost, when the sermon of 
Peter brought conviction of sin and the knowledge of the 
way of salvation to three thousand in one day, to the pre- 
sent time, the preaching of the gospel by a living ministry 
has been the most potent instrument in winning those 
victories, that have extended the Kingdom of Christ in 
the world. The Reformers that rejected the heresies and 
corruptions of their times, the Missionaries who planted 
the standard of the cross amid barbarism and idolatry r 
and the leaders in the great revivals that have quickened 
the languishing life of the Church in times of luke- 
warmness and worldliness, all achieved the work that have 
given them enduring renown, simply by preaching " the 
truth as it in Jesus." 

There are, however, many who admit the great achieve- 
ments of the pulpit in past times, but deny that it is 
equally powerful now. The decline of the power of the 
pulpit is a favourite theme with those who have no true 
sympathy with the objects of Christian preaching. It is 
claimed that the press has almost entirely superseded the 
preacher as the instructor of the people, and the moulder 
of "public opinion. It must be admitted that preaching 
does not occupy the same comparative eminence, that it 
did when it was the chief means of instruction. But, if 
through the growth of other agencies, the influence of the 
pulpit is relatively less, it is positively greater than at any 
former time. Most of the instrumentalities which now 



Introduction. 



xiii 



aid in accomplishing the work which once exclusively 
belonged to the Christian preacher, have been called into 
existence by the teaching of the pulpit ; and are them- 
selves the direct fruits of the agency which they are used 
to disparage. Have not the ministers of the Christian 
Churches generally been the leaders in the formation of 
philanthropic and benevolent societies \ and in the pro- 
duction and circulation of that religious literature that 
it is alleged has superseded the teaching of the pulpit ? 
There never at any former time was anything like so vast 
a number of people who are attentive listeners to the 
preaching of the gospel. There never was a time when 
sermons were so widely published and read as now. At 
no former time did the truths, which constitute the burden 
of the Christian preacher's message, receive such careful 
study and general attention as now. And never before 
were there so many men of distinguished learning, elo- 
quence 'and genius in the pulpits of the different churches 
as to-day. What a host of eloquent preachers has been 
given to the churches of our day ! We have such men as 
Spurgeon, McLaren, Laudels and Stowell Brown among 
the Baptists ; Beecher, Binney, Parker, Baldwin Brown, 
Bushnell and Storrs, among the Congregationalists ; Pun- 
shon, Arthur, Simpson, McClintock, Douglas, Ryerson 
and Fowler among the Methodists • Guthrie, Candlish, 
Caird, Arnott, Ormiston and Talmage among the Presby- 
terians ; Robertson, Mellville, French, Liddon, Hunting- 
don and Tyng among Esiscopalians ; and scores of others 
scarcely less renowned. It is preposterous to maintain 
that a generation starred with the names of such illustrious 
preachers, has been a period of decline in the influence 
of Christian preaching. 



xiv 



Introduction. 



We believe that those who flippantly assume the decline 
of the pulpit, and regard it as an obsolete agency, miscon- 
ceive its true mission and functions. They find fault with 
the preaching they hear, or fancy that others hear, because 
it does not accomplish things which are foreign to its di- 
vine purpose. The Christian preacher's main work must 
be with the conscience and spiritual nature of men. As 
long as he rightly apprehends the true object of preaching, 
and works in harmony with this right apprehension, preach- 
ing will not become obsolete or effete. For not only is 
preaching a divine^ordinance, it has, as we have intimated, 
a divine adaptation to accomplish its object. Spoken 
words, embodying thoughts and feelings, are the natural 
mode by which mind most powerfully influences mind, 
both in reference to secular and sacred things, and though 
this method is not confined to ministers, for all who love 
Christ are to make Him known to others, yet it is in a 
special and emphatic sense the method of the ambassador 
for Christ, in his work of persuading his fellowmen to be 
reconciled to God. And as long as men are consciously 
guilty and dead in sin and desiring forgiveness and spiri- 
tual life, so long must the testimony of those, whose own 
hearts have been quickened and gladdened by living faith 
in Christ, possess preeminent fitness to lead sinners to 
" the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." 
The power of the pulpit will decline only when those who 
occupy it preach for doctrines the commandments of men, 
by substituting their own theories for the simple verities 
of the Word of God ; or preach the truth without faith 
and feeling. Things may be good enough in their own 
place that yet cannot be made the theme of preaching 



Introduction. 



xv 



without loss of power. It is not fair to compare the pul- 
pit with agencies that have widely different aims, as if no 
such difference of object existed, and then declare the 
pulpit a failure, because it has not been more successful 
in what was only a very subordinate part of its work. The 
creations of the imaginations, the speculations of philoso- 
phy, and the discoveries of science are respectively the 
business of the poet, philosopher and scientist; and 
though they may minister to theology, should never be 
the main themes of the preacher. Wherever this is the 
case, whatever apparent success may accrue, there is a 
loss of that spiritual power without which the pulpit is 
shorn of its strength. But as long as the truth is preached 
in love to the conscience of men — as long as Christ is 
faithfully and fully proclaimed by men whose lips have 
been touched by living fire from heaven, and the message 
of the preacher is shown to be the power of God unto 
salvation, by sinners being converted and sanctified 
through its influence, " though the heathen may rage and 
the people imagine a vain thing," the Christian pulpit shall 
continue to be the mightiest witness for truth and holi- 
ness, amid the folly and ungodliness of the world. 

We cannot here dwell upon the different schools or 
styles of preaching that have prevailed at different periods 
in different countries. Successful Methodist preaching 
has always been distinguished by plainness and simplicity 
of language, directness of appeal, clearness in stating the 
doctrines relating to personal godliness and readiness in 
illustrating Scripture truth. We trust that this volume 
will show that the Canadian Methodist Pulpit still retains, 
in a good degree, these characteristics. I am gratified 



Introduction. 



with Mr. Phillips' idea of preparing a volume of sermons 
by Canadian Methodist Ministers. Two or three volumes 
of sermons by Canadian Presbyterian authors have been 
recently published ; and there are several good reasons 
to prompt and justify the publication of this volume. 
First, we may indulge the hope that words that have 
stirred the hearts of those who heard them spoken from 
from the pulpit will be read with spiritual profit in the 
privacy of religious meditation. Secondly, a record and 
specimen of the kind of preaching which is now being 
used in the Evangelistic work of our Church cannot fail 
to be of interest to all who pray for the coming of Christ's 
kingdom. In some of the ancient armouries of England 
I saw suits of armour, swords and other weapons of war 
that were reputed to have been used on certain historic 
occasions by kings or famous warriors. These are pre- 
served with sacred veneration ; and should we not pre- 
serve with equal regard the weapons both of offence and 
defence that have been successfully wielded om the 
spiritual battle-fields of the Church ? The present gene- 
ration would read with deep and curious interest the 
sermons that were preached by the pioneer preachers, 
who laid the foundation of our Church in this country. 
But the sermons of to-day, that are forming the religious 
character and views of the people of this youthful nation 
are scarcely of less importance, and will be read with no 
little interest by the next generation. 

In proportion as we cherish a high estimate of the 
objects sought to be accomplished by preaching will we 
feel anxious that the instrumentality used by the Church 
be adapted to secure the desired results. The greatness 



Introduction. 



xvn 



of the preacher's work is seen from the grandeur of the 
truths and interests with which he deals. "What is 
divinity," says South, "but a doctrine, treating of the 
nature, attributes and works of the great God, as He 
stands related to His rational creatures, and the way how 
rational creatures may serve, worship and enjoy Him ? 
And, if so, is not the subject of it the greatest, and the de- 
sign and business of it the noblest in the world, as being 
no less than to direct an immortal soul to its endless 
felicity ? ?; 

I have not had the privelege of reading the sermons in 
this volume before writing these introductory words. But 
the names of the preachers are sufficient guarantee that 
the volume will be found worthy of attentive perusal, 
especially by the numerous membership of the Methodist 
Church of Canada. May the truths here presented be 
accompanied by the influence of the Holy Spirit, and 
be a means of affording spiritual strength and comfort to 
many readers. 

E. Hartley Dew 7 art. 



BROKEN CISTERNS. 



SERMON I. 

By the REV. W. MORLEY PUNSHON, M.A., LL.D. 

"For my people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken 
me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, 
broken cisterns, that can hold no water. — Jeremiah ii. 13. 

EREMIAH was called to the exercise of the 
prophetical office in his youth. In his modest 
appreciation of himself, and shrinking from the 
onerous duty, he exclaimed : " Ah, Lord God ! 
behold, I cannot speak : for I am a child." 
But when God designates to any particular ser- 
vice neither the qualification nor the encouragement is 
lacking, and, child as he was, he departed fearlessly from 
Anathoth to Jerusalem that he might there deliver his 
message of rebuke and of warning. God seeth not as man 
seeth, and He who passed by the goodliness of Eliab and 
his brethren, in order to raise David from the sheep-fold 
to the throne, selected this child to rebuke the lukewarm - 
ness and apostasy of priests high in office, and of elders 
venerable for age. The Jewish nation was at this time in 

A 




2 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



evil moral case. The spirit of godliness was almost ex- 
tinct in its borders. It is impossible to imagine a more 
fearful depth of depravity than that which is presented to 
us in the eighth verse of the chapter from which the text 
is taken, where the very ministers of the sanctuary, those 
separated for the service of the holy shrine, are represented 
as being abettors and perpetrators of wickedness. " The 
priests said not, Where is the Lord ? and they that handle 
the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed be- 
fore me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked 
after things that do not profit. " The prophet rebukes 
their impiety and rebellion by the consistency of the ido- 
lators around them, and marvels that they, the only nation 
under heaven to whom the true God had been revealed, 
should be the only nation under heaven that was so con- 
stantly given to change. " Wherefore I will yet plead 
with you, saith the Lord, and with your children's children 
will I plead. For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see : 
and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if 
there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods 
which are yet no gods ? but my people have changed their 
glory for that which doth not profit." And then, in an 
appeal, startling in its suddenness and in the strength of 
its language, and which could not fail to impress itself 
upon the hearts of those who listened to it like the distant 
but quailing reverberations of the mount that burned, he 
says: "Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be hor- 
ribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my 
people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, 
the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, 
broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 

Brethren, our circumstances to-day are very similar to 



Broken Cisterns. 



3 



the circumstances of those to whom the prophet spoke. 
In many respects our condition is more analagous to theirs 
than to the condition of those to whom Paul preached 
and to whom Peter addressed his words of admonition 
and of warning. For the most part those to whom the 
evangelists preached, and to whom the apostles wrote, 
were just emerging from the tyranny of heathenism. To 
them the gospel was a novel proclamation ; they needed 
to be instructed in its rudiments, and to be warned against 
the familiar immoralities of their former state. The pro- 
phecies, on the other hand, were addressed to those who 
lived under the shadow of long-cherished institutions ; 
who had an established church ; who had a ritual, time- 
honoured and holy ; who had living teachers ; who were 
fenced about with precept on the right hand and on the 
left. Their rebellion, therefore, was utterly inexcusable, 
and on them it was but fitting that the severest reproba- 
tion should descend. Brethren, if you remember your 
own privileges to-night, you will be convinced that surely 
the prophet might have spoken those words of you. 
Yours is the very brightest of the ages ; the sun which 
shines upon you has gathered as into a focus all the scat- 
tered rays of the former dispensations and converged 
them in his own meridian. Yours are days after which 
prophets yearned, and which kings of the olden time 
wailed in one long ambition to see. Yours is a land 
where freedom girds the altar and where worship conse- 
crates the throne ; a land lively with the many runners 
that increase in knowledge, and bright with the radiance 
of an open vision. Yours are times of extraordinary 
spiritual endowment; when sabbaths are not yet shorn 
of their sacredness, and when thousands of sanctuaries 



4 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



are eloquent of witness for the truth. God has permitted 
you to listen to a multitude of teachers who have brought 
the truth home to you, and who have enforced it in every 
variety of illustration and of appeal. Very adequately 
have you been furnished with the means of instruction 
and of salvation ; very faithfully have you been warned of 
danger \ very tenderly have you been made acquainted 
with the love of God in Christ. Yours is a very wonder- 
ful inheritance of privilege, and you cannot deny it, and 
if, after all, you become recreant and apostate, you tram- 
ple upon such a multitude of mercies that the very hea- 
vens may well be desolate and horribly afraid, and God, 
regretful and grieving, may utter His complaint, " My peo- 
ple have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, 
the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, 
broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 

The first thing, before we try to explain and enforce 
this appeal, is surely to notice the representation which 
is here given us of the character of God. In many parts 
of Scripture there are descriptions of Jehovah as He is in 
Himself, in the essence of His supreme and eternal divinity, 
and our spirits pale before the revelation of the attributes 
divine. We are confounded as we think of perfection 
without limit and without end ; of power uncontrolled in 
its lordship over all possible worlds ; of presence that is 
all-pervading ; of an eye to which there are no secrets, to 
which the depths are luminous, and to which midnight is 
as noon ; of justice whose decisions cannot possibly be 
impeached ; of wisdom whose plans in no solitary instance 
fail. Our minds are baffled by the very endeavour to 
comprehend, wearied by the intenseness of the light upon 
which we gaze. Truly, these are parts of His ways, but 



Broken Cisterns. 



5 



how little a portion of Him is known, and the thunder of 
His power who can understand? Time brings us no 
nearer to the comprehension ; the problem becomes more 
intricate as we study it ; man by searching cannot find 
out God. He is dark to us, dark, both from His own 
excess of brightness, and from our infirmity of vision. 
His attributes are as a well upon whose brink we stand 
recoiling from the abyss beneath us, and exclaiming " Oh, 
the depths ! " and yet in whose translucent waters we can 
see the stars at noon. If there were no other revelation 
than this, if all that we knew of God were the discovery 
of His essential attributes, we should be awed, perhaps, 
but we should not be affected and subdued. It would be 
difficult for us to realize that that God who is so transcend- 
ency glorious could ever come near us, could ever take 
account of us, could ever be brought into sensible and 
realizing connection with ourselves. There is a sense of 
remoteness inseparable from all human conceptions of 
enormous power which, in the absence of other tidings 
of the Holy One, would hardly have been dispelled ; we 
should hardly have felt the identity, so to speak ; we 
could hardly have imagined that that God whose glory 
crossing the gulf which separates us, we had seen so 
grandly shining, was our own and our fathers' God, who 
claims our heart's allegiance and our life's service, and 
whose smallest behests we are under obligation to obey. 
But in the text there is another revelation of God, not a 
revelation of Him as He is in Himself, in His essence, 
but a revelation of Him in His relations, not as He is in 
Himself, but as He is in His sufficiency and in His ful- 
ness for His creature man. He is presented as a foun- 
tain of living waters, the spring and the source of all 



6 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



created good. How consoling and how tender the reve- 
lation ! Living water is the Old Testament symbol for 
the highest possible good, and when in that arid East with 
its familiar experience of drought and sand, in the savage 
desert, just on the other side of the mountains that were 
round Jerusalem, they heard of water, living water, a foun- 
tain of living water which no typhoon ever choked and 
which no heat ever exhaled, it could not fail to represent 
to their minds the very highest possible good. And, 
brethren, these words, in the very amplest and widest of 
their meaning, we may apply to our own God. It has 
been well observed that " God-head 7 ' and " Goodness " 
are convertible terms ; that the old Saxon word " Good " 
is the very word from which our name " God ,; is derived, 
and that; therefore, goodness is the very essence of divi- 
nity, the cementing-bond of all the other attributes, and 
that in which they all adhere. It would seem, indeed, as 
if it were almost incorrect to speak of goodness as an 
attribute of the divine nature at all ; it is that nature itself, 
and all the other attributes are but its manifestations and 
displays — wisdom the mind of goodness, and power the 
arm of goodness, and omniscience the ear of goodness, 
and omnipresence the eye of goodness, and truth the 
tongue of goodness, and justice the conscience of good- 
ness, and love the great beating and swelling heart of 
goodness. What is creation but goodness, finding new 
theatres for the display and for the exercise of itself? 
What is Providence but goodness reducing discord into 
harmony? What is grace but goodness repairing ruin 
and re-peopling solitudes, just as when the fire has burned 
and charred some street of squalid houses, on the site, by 
the skill of the artificer, goodly terraces and stately man- 



Broken Cisterns. 



7 



sions rise. All that we can know of God resolves itself 
into this, " Thou art good and doest good." When the 
psalmist, the great interpreter of the believers of all time, 
would educe from his loved harp its melodies of sweetest 
song, it was to this tune, " I will abundantly utter the 
memory of Thy great goodness/' When he felt the rap- 
ture of a new and spiritual existence, how naturally did he 
acknowledge its source — " In Thee is the fountain of life." 
If grace is to come to a world of sinners which, without it, 
were unhappy and despairing, where does the prophet 
trace its rise but from "the fountain opened in the house of 
David for sin and for uncleanness ; " and in the perfected 
allotment, in the recompense of the beatific vision, there 
was " a river of water of life flowing from the throne of 
God and the Lamb." 

Brethren, with such representations of the character of 
God, we should naturally expect that all men would be 
charmed into obedience, and would wait in their honoured 
service that they might be allowed to do their Maker's 
will, finding in their performance of duty their fruition of 
delight. Hence, if we had been suddenly introduced 
into the world, if — with no inner arguments to convince 
us of our own estrangement — we had seen the wicked- 
ness of the world, we should have been shocked and 
startled by the accusation of the text, " My people have 
committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, the fountain 
of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken 
cisterns, that can hold no water." Why, we should have 
called that an infatuation which was little short of lunacy ; 
the rebellion of a people demented and needing only the 
fetters and the keeper ; the ingratitude of a heart divorced 
utterly from the slightest fellowship with the good and 



8 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



true. Our censure, if we had been called upon to speak 
it, would have been uttered in strong words ; our sen- 
tence, if we had been on the judicial bench, would have 
been very quickly pronounced ; and if the power of the 
judge had been commensurate with his sense of evil desert, 
in all cases the execution of the sentence would have been 
determined upon speedily. Ah ! brethren, your indigna- 
tion is very just, but it has condemned yourselves. The 
accusation of the prophet may be very justly urged against 
ourselves ; and on both counts of the sad indictment, we 
stand arraigned, convicted and condemned. Examine 
your own hearts, and you will find in each one of them, 
unless Christ has happily cleansed them from their pollu- 
tion, the elements of treason, the foul and audacious ele- 
ments of blasphemy and rebellion against God. 

There is something very startling in the thought that 
the appeal is not to the rebels themselves. They have 
had their chance, and it is over. The appeal now is to 
the external world, to the heavens that have looked down 
upon their crime, and to inanimate nature around them. 
" Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly 
afraid, be ye very desolate." It is as though the transgres- 
sors have become obdurate to reproof, and are given up 
to the hardness of their hearts. They have been often 
warned, but God has ceased to importune them now ; 
their eyes did see their teachers, but those teachers have 
been withdrawn ; they were frequently chastened, if haply 
the rod of correction might drive from them their cher- 
ished folly, but they revolted even while they were stricken, 
and, under the strokes of the lash, went out into a deeper 
desperateness of evil, and now the correction has ceased 
only because they are incorrigible. Oh ? is it possible. 



Broken Cisterns, 



9 



brethren, is it possible that there should be any analogy ? 
Is it possible that any of us can have so persistently 
sinned that God should appeal to us no longer, but that 
he should appeal against us rather, as if we were of obdu- 
rate and reprobate minds ? Have we tampered so long 
with privilege that it has lost its opportunity? Have 
we been excluded from the inheritance of blessing ? Has 
chastening ceased from us simply because we have passed 
reproof, and because there has come upon us that myste- 
rious perverseness, that strange joining unto idols, which 
even God Himself will regretfully leave alone ? Oh, let 
the spirit of searching be given to-night, and be used ! 
God-forsaking, there is no wonder if we speedily become 
a God-forsaken people. There are melancholy instances 
in Scripture of the removal, or of the shackling, of abused 
privilege. That whitening trail of bones along the desert 
pathway — what does it mean ? Oh, it means that the 
very men who passed in triumph through the restrained 
waters, and who heard, and quailed the while they heard, 
the law spoken in thunder, relapsed into unbelief, so 
that their carcasses fell in the wilderness. That weary- 
footed wanderer, bronzed with the sun of every clime, 
having a footing and a recognition everywhere, but no- 
where in the wide, wide world a home, in whose soul, the 
while he seems restless only about his bargains, there is 
still a latent hope of a grand future, and who, even at his 
meanest and most sordid estate, has an ancestry prouder 
than the Plantagenets, and a destiny nobler than that of 
kings — what is his name, and why wanders he thus, fugi- 
tive, branded, and forlorn ? Oh, you must go back to a 
hill of suffering and of shame ; you must listen to an im- 
precation that was uttered there — an imprecation that 



io The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

heaven heard and registered — " His blood be upon us 
and upon our children !" and you must trace the origin 
of the disinheritance of the Hebrew there. Those mounds, 
shapeless and undistinguishable, in the desert, with here 
a heap of stones, and there the splintered and crumbling 
shaft of a once stately column, conveying somewhat of 
the magnificence of its former glory— those cities on whose 
walls is the dust of doom, and which linger on in a dreary 
sort of life — 

" Like hearts that break yet brokenly live on," 

— what is the meaning of these ? What are they ? Ah ! 
these were the fairest and most cherished spots of ancient 
privilege ! The Seven Churches flourished here whose 
angels were honoured to receive the direct commands of 
heaven. But the ploughshare of ruin has passed over 
these fields once so fertile ; owls, and serpents, and dra- 
gons, are the only tenants of the chambers where princes 
once dwelt, and these cities of ancient blessing have been 
trodden beneath the foot of the Mohammedan ! Brethren, 
can it be so with us ? Is it possible that that can be any 
analogy ? Is it possible that the privileges which now 
blossom so fair and so promising in our midst shall, by^ 
and-by, be taken away ? Yes ; the same law of retribu- 
tion exists, and has never yet been repealed. It needs 
but that we persevere in our rebellion and abandonment 
of God and He may silence the voice of testimony, or He 
may remove us where it may never be heard, or He may 
banish us beyond the sound of the church-going bell ; or 
He may smite us with a lingering sickness, so that next 
door to the sanctuary we may never be able to enter it ; 
or He may dethrone the reason, which alone can make 



Broken Cisterns. 



1 1 



our visits to the sanctuary profitable, from its kingly seat, 
and let us gibber in the helplessness of idiocy, or rave in 
the frenzy of madness ; or — oh, most appalling vial of 
wrath that can be poured out from heaven ! — He may 
withdraw from us the influences of His own Holy Spirit, 
and leave our God-forsaken hearts to their own perdition 
and despair ! Brethren, I deprecate that doom, and, with 
all the earnestness and with all the affection of a heart 
that has felt your peril, I urge you that you have decision 
for God ! 

" My people have committed two evils/' — there is the 
point of the text — two evils — " they have forsaken me, 
the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, 
broken cisterns, that can hold no water. " Now, although 
these two evils are spoken of as distinct, you will always 
find them in practice in intimate connection with each 
other, nor will you find the committal of the one without 
the committal of the other as well. If men forsake God, 
it is not that their hearts are emptied of desire. There is 
a restless instinct which prompts a life-search after happi- 
ness in the breast of every man. It is manifestly impos- 
sible that a nature like ours should be satisfied without it. 
There is a wealth of love within us, and it must have an 
outlet somewhere ; it cannot spill itself upon the unpro- 
ductive surface of the desert. There is a wealth of energy 
within us, and it must have a direction and an activity. 
There is a wealth of purpose within us, and it must have 
some destined aim. There is no heart that has ever yet 
been dispossessed of a tenant. There are no hearts to let 
as there are houses. If God does not reign there Satan 
must and will. The strong man armed cannot be dispos- 
sessed except a stronger than he come in ; and the evil 



12 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



enemy can only be exorcised by the energy of the power by 
which it is overcome. When men forsake the fountain, 
therefore, for the cisterns of their own skill, it is not that 
they have no thirst, it is not that their thirst is not con- 
suming, but it is that they seek the slaking of their thirst 
in the waters of their own ingenuity and of their own 
belief. This is mentioned as a second evil, aggravating 
the bitterness and the turpitude of the first — " My people 
have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, the 
fountain of living waters that, in itself, is a foul and 
damning sin, but it is made worse by what follows — "and 
hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no 
water." The very contemptuous character of the sources 
from which they hope for satisfaction aggravates the bit- 
terness of their rebellion in forsaking God. Just notice 
it for a moment. " My people have committed two evils ; 
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and 
hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold 
no water." There the fountain leaped, all free and unso- 
licited, by their side, jetting out its sparkling fulness with- 
out any effort of theirs ; but they preferred the labour of 
apostasy — they had to hew the cisterns out — they pre- 
ferred the labour of apostasy to the enjoyment of obedi- 
ence. They hewed them out cisterns ; they were too 
haughty to accept of happiness purchased for them by 
the merits of another, and in whose procurement they had 
no personal share; "they hewed them out cisterns, bro- 
ken cisterns, that could hold no water/' Oh ! what a 
graphic description of the ways of the world ! You can 
almost see the profitless workers in the quarry, busy upon 
the granite, with the beaded sweat upon their brow, wield- 
ing the implements of their exhausting labour, while the 



Broken Cisterns. 



fountain leaps in bright cascade hard by them, as if in 
mockery of their toil ! They hewed out to themselves 
cisterns. They hewed out to themselves : they spurned 
all help ; they would not even avail themselves of the 
materials of the former time ; they would not try to fill 
the empty cisterns of their ancestors ! they would not take 
up the tantalizing labour just where other hewers, wearied 
with their toil, had dropped the axe and died. Such was 
the infatuation of their independence, that each one of 
them, though he had no new scheme, must have some 
new endeavour for the perfecting of the old ; and they 
worked, each of them as hard and as stubbornly as if none 
had ever handled axe or played at reservoir before them. 
They "hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that 
can hold no water." And then notice the comparison 
still further. They hewed them out cisterns ; that was 
the utmost of their ambition, and, of course, the utmost 
of their attainment. With the chances of the boundless 
ocean before them, which they did not fashion, they pre- 
ferred the clumsy little receptacles which they could scoop 
out for themselves in the sand — cisterns, limited at best 
in capacity and in measure — broken cisterns, liable to be 
marred in the making, subject to a thousand accidents 
that might prematurely put an end to their existence, 
either from imperfect construction, or from the assaults of 
time — broken cisterns that could hold no water — mere 
expensive encumbrances, useless altogether for the pur- 
poses for which they were made. 

And to think that the living God, the fountain of living 
waters, should be forsaken for things so utterly useless 
and unworthy ! " They have forsaken me, the fountain 
of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken 



14 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



cisterns," — this is the climax of it — " broken cisterns 
that can hold no water." Oh ! you cannot wonder 
that at such an exhibition of the very stupidity of sin the 
very heavens should be desolate and horribly afraid, and 
that God, regretful and grieving, should again utter His 
complaint — " My people have committed two evils ; they 
have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and 
hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold 
no water." 

Throughout the whole of this appeal, brethren, you 
perceive that the reference is altogether on the human 
side. God does not speak of His own violated law, or of 
His own insulted honour ; He speaks of man's disappoint- 
ment, of the baffling of man's efforts, and of the utter ruin 
which it will bring upon the builders themselves. The 
tendency of the whole passage is to impress upon us just 
this : — that men take great pains to be foolish, that men 
make unheard-of efforts only to prove themselves impious 
and unhappy. They " hewed them out cisterns, broken 
cisterns that can hold no water." There is no reference 
in this passage to the indolent ; they are criminal, very 
deeply criminal, and there are many Scriptures which repro- 
bate and condemn their crime, but they are not spoken 
of here. There is no reference, either, to the indifferent ; 
their danger is imminent ; their destruction does not 
slumber; but they are not among the foolish builders, 
they care for none of these things. The reference is 
to those who have a purpose, not to those who are too 
sluggish and idle to take axe in hand, but to those 
who have a purpose, who have energy, but who mis- 
direct its power, and, either from their unbelief or their 
presumption, forsake the fountain of living waters, and 



Broken Cisterns. 



hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no 
water. 

Now, as to the truth of this statement, do you not see 
it illustrated constantly, both in matters of human creed 
and in the practices of unconverted men ? Just take 
these two thoughts for a moment — first, in matters of 
creed. " God made men upright, but they have sought 
out many inventions" of wickedness, and if you examine 
these inventions, you will find that they are cisterns of 
cumbrous ceremonial and of unsatisfying symbol. This 
is the case both when there is oblivion of the truth, and 
when the truth is held, in unrighteousness, both in false 
systems, and in false holdings of the true. Those rude 
superstitions of India, for example, are of no mushroom 
growth, no day's efflorescence of a tropical vegetation • 
they have been piled up with infinite care and at infinite 
cost ; they are the slow and heavy elaborations of years. 
Popery grew not at once into its insolent manhood of 
error; rebel reason, and unhumbled pride, and lordly 
churchmanship, and human avarice of power, and human 
love of mystery, and human impatience of restraint, and 
human hankering after easy absolution and permitted sin 
— all these were present, and they laboured hard and long 
until they beat Christianity down into that mis-shapen 
caricature of it which is in the midst of us to-day. And 
it is so with all systems of error ; they are hard works of 
Satan, cisterns hewn out with amazing patience and with 
amazing ingenuity of toil. If you look to their moral 
effects among men, their exacting services, their utter 
hollowness and failure, the truth is still apparent that they 
are broken cisterns which can hold no water. How rigid 
are the rites, how intolerable the suspense, how merciless 



1 6 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

the verdicts, how cruel are the penances, of heathenism ! 
All the gods of the heathen smite their worshippers ; they 
lap up drink-offerings of blood ; they delight in hecatombs 
of sacrifice. How vain is the heritage of the poor Roman- 
ist, taught to supplement the atonement of Christ by the 
cleansing of purgatory, and the intercession of Christ by 
the advocacy of meaner saints and angels ! the heir to the 
doled-out morsels of the Bible, and to a semi-sacrament, 
and to alien prayer ! What labour do they entail upon 
themselves who hope to merit justification by the deeds 
of the law ! how painful their penance ! how ostentatious 
their charities ! 

Their cumbrous ceremonials, their laboured vigils, all 
the consecrated antics of their ecclesiastical posture-mas- 
ters — they are cisterns, all of them, cisterns that ought to 
be broken if they are not ; broken cisterns that can hold 
no satisfying, living water. Our souls loathe them ; we 
cannot be satisfied with these. Bid me choose the lan- 
guor of the invalid when health is at my bidding ; bid me 
crouch to read by the light of the lantern in the crypt 
when the blessed sun is shining in the sky ; bid me cleave 
to the vaulted dungeon when the free hills sport with the 
shadows and the wild woodlands are gay with summer ; 
bid me, when the world is open to me for a place of rest, 
choose the churchyard for a dwelling ; or abide in the red- 
crossed house where the plague waits for its prey ; but 
bid me, O ! bid me not forsake the fountain of living wa- 
ters, and choose these stagnant, empty, foolish cisterns of 
human superstition, while from the Saviour's heart, all 
fresh and sparkling, there flows the issuing blood. My 
brethren, if you have a Christless theology, if there is 
anything in your creed that derogates unworthily from the 



Broken Cisterns. 



17 



perfection of His character, or that does not lead you 
directly and at once to Him, away with it ! Bid it begone ! 
It is a broken cistern that can hold no water. Oh, come ! 
and with your full belief, the belief of a heart which no 
misgiving shall cause to doubt, rest your whole salvation 
here ; you cannot then suffer shame. However dark you 
are He will enlighten you ; however vile you are He will 
cleanse you ; however imperilled you are He will deliver 
you \ and, long after the little children of the kingdom 
are playing upon the ruins of Earth's broken cisterns, you 
shall rejoice in the flashing fulness of the fountain \ as 
buoyant in the snow as in the sun \ blessing you in the 
dullest December with the warmth of a perpetual July ; 
and, in its inner and spiritual cleansing, fitting you, through 
all the vicissitudes of earth, to be uplifted from out of the 
night of the sepulchre into the rest and fellowship of 
heaven's sacred, high, eternal noon ! 

And then take the other thought, which is a matter 
that comes more practically home to your own bosoms. 
If you look at the ordinary pursuits in which the ungodly 
cast their lives away you will find an illustration of the 
same truth. They entail mighty labour, all of them, 
upon their votaries, and the results at which they arrive 
are results of disappointment and shame. The way of 
transgressors is hard — hard — very hard ; God has made 
it so, and He has made it so on purpose to deter men 
from the commission of evil. How rarely, for example, 
can men tell a lie, one lie I mean — only one ! They are 
obliged to pour out one upon the heels of another, just to 
cover, with a sort of moral gauze, their first departure from 
the truth. Fraud, once yielded to and concealed, begets 
a numerous progeny (like Adam) in its own likeness ; and 

B 



1 8 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

there are many who blushed like innocence on their first 
departure from the right, who will perpetrate, when they 
are schooled in the labour, giant frauds without remorse, 
without scruple and without shame. The way of trans- 
gressors is hard, and all the cisterns that they pile up are 
broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Look at them 
in the midst of their career. Look at the eager world- 
lings, each intent upon his own desire, shaming — alas, 
that it should be so ! — shaming, by their absorption in 
their business, the children of the Kingdom ; for the 
children of this world are still, as the Saviour said they 
were, wiser than the children of Light. Look at them. 
How hard they labour ! See that pleasure-seeker, whose 
whole life is bent on pleasure — see how, with tripping 
feet, she whirls from one gay scene of dissipation to 
another ! — heedless of health ; heedless of food ; heedless 
of rest ! The whole business of the life a search for plea- 
sure ; constantly at work, at it in the day-time, and flaunt- 
ing out far into the night. Ah ! she is busy with her cis- 
tern, and it will be finished soon— -finished soon / That 
companion of hers of the opposite sex, a less refined but 
equally eager, devotee of pleasure, drinking, in his search 
after pleasure, deep draughts from Circean cups ; found 
wherever the world proclaims its carnival ; going into 
places, by-and-by — not at first, but by-and-by — from 
which decency recoils ; herding with the very scum and 
offscouring of all — he is busy with his cistern, and 
it will be finished soon ! Yes ; and that refined and clas- 
sical scholar, who looks contemptuously at these pleasure- 
lovers as they speed rapidly past him, who pores over his 
books, and who is earnest in his pursuit of knowledge — 
he ? too, is busy with his cistern, it is more classically 



Broken Cisterns. 



19 



shaped, perhaps, and of a more refined type of architec- 
ture, but it is a cistern, notwithstanding, a broken cistern, 
that can hold no water — he is busy with his cistern, and 
it will be finished soon ! That miser, covetous of ap- 
plause, to whom the good opinion of his fellows is like 
the nectar and ambrosia of the gods — he is busy with his 
cistern, and oh, how hard he works ! What will he not 
endure ! What disappointments he puts up with ! He 
does not suffer any of them to turn him aside as he 
glances up the hill, but oh, how cold it is when he gets 
there ! He has no companionship there ! It is all soli- 
tary at his lonely height, and he stands, like the poor 
spirit that was found dead with the " Excelsior' ' banner 
on the top of the hill, envying the happy homes beneath 
in which the laughter sounds, and from which there war- 
bles up to his dim and perilous distance the voice of the 
evening song ; ah ! he is busy with his cistern, and it will 
be finished soon ! That other miser, covetous of treasure, 
least erect of all the spirits that fell from heaven he has 
taken for his model, and he is scraping together continu- 
ally, with an ambition and a jealousy which in aught else 
were laudible, the treasure he cannot carry with him ; he 
is busy with his cistern, and it will be finished soon ! Oh, 
how hard they all work ! Oh, how they deny themselves 
of sleep ! How they deny themselves of comfort ! How 
they grudge anything for their own expenditure ! How 
they would hail any discovery that should economise 
modes of living, or modes of thought, or modes of loco- 
motion ! They are busy with their cisterns, all of them ! 
The affections contract, purposes contract, the one grand 
thought occupies them fully, and the great world outside 
dies out, and the thought and memory of life. They are 



20 



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busy with their cisterns,— they are cisterns that hold no 
water, but they will be finished soon. Hark to that plea- 
sure-seeker as, with dim eye and heaving bosom, she sobs 
out with her last gasp the most terrible experience that 
human language can ever embody or express — the expe- 
rience of a soul that is dead while it lives — " Vanity of 
vanity, all is vanity !" Hark at that other pleasure-seeker 
as he is brought prematurely by his own vices, that sting 
him, like harpies and like furies now, to the bed of afflic- 
tion or to the couch of pain, or to the dread meeting with 
the last enemy before his time ! Hark at him as he sighs 
forth his experience of the past in accents of remorse 
which it were difficult to parallel. " The wicked shall 
not live out half their days." See the pale and tired stu- 
dent, his life, a life departing young, as with eye of un- 
natural brilliancy he revels in an ideal which he shall 
never be spared to see ! Ah ! 

6 ' Saddest sign of his condition 
Is his bounding, wild ambition ; 
None but dying eyes could gaze on 
So bright a vision !" 

See the miser covetous of fame ; he has enjoyed it, or 
fancied he did, for a little while ; but now he gnashes his 
teeth in rage because his glory has all gone from him, 
and the welkin rings with the name of his successful rival ! 
See that other miser, covetous of treasure — no thief has 
come to rob him of his property — but death comes to rob 
the property of its lord. He has added house to house, 
and field to field ; he is reputable and rich ; his name is 
honoured ; and men swear by him, and he is reputed as 
one of the pillars of the state ; but at last there comes a 



Broken Cisterns. 



2 I 



creditor who will not be cheated of his due. He feels the 
fibres of his heart relaxing, and he takes his last gripe of 
the gold he has loved so well, as the agonizing thought 
comes over him that where he is going gold is not the 
currency, and that he cannot take it with him, and that 
the heir to whom he must perforce leave it, after all his 
endeavours, is a vile spendthrift and a prodigal ! Broken 
cisterns — all of them ! broken cisterns that can hold no 
water. Oh, why do men spend their money for that 
which is not bread, and their labour for that which satis- 
fieth not ? Why do the prodigals stop out in the fields, 
among the husks and among the sw T ine, when the Father's 
house is ready, and the Father's heart is open, and the 
Father's banquet is spread, and the Father's invitation is 
given, and the Father's minstrels are waiting to lead off 
the song — 11 This my son which was dead, is alive again, 
was lost, and is found ! " ? Brethren, it is to you I make 
my appeal to-night. There are some of you — you know 
there are — whose experience has been described. You 
have been making cisterns too long. You are not satis- 
fied ; you are restless ; you are unhappy. I charge you 
with being unhappy, in spite of all the efforts you make 
to disguise it. You are not, you cannot be happy as long 
as you are out of Christ. But I offer you happiness with- 
out money and without price. Oh, that you would take 
it ! Christ waits to be gracious to you, as well as to 
receive you. Oh, come to him ! He says " Come unto 
me all ye that are weary" — that is just you — "and heavy 
laden" — that is just you — " Come unto me all ye that 
are weary and heavy laden, and you shall find rest unto 
your souls." I ask you to come away from your distem- 
pered dreams of freedom. There is a fountain opened ; 



22 



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there is living water ; and whosoever drinketh of this wa- 
ter shall never thirst All the consuming horror of the 
appetite shall be gone ; there shall be a satisfaction which 
will allay all anxiety, and anticipate every desire. "Who- 
soever drinketh of this water shall never thirst, for the 
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life." May God help you 
that these two evils may be averted from you, and that 
you may partake of this living water, for the Redeemer's 
sake. 



A GOOD MAN, PULL OP THE HOLY 
GHOST AND OP FAITH. 



SERMON II. 

By REV. E. RYERSON, D.D., Chief Superintendent 
of Education, Toronto. 

" For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." 
— Acts xi. 24. 

[Note. — The substance of the following Sermon was delivered 
before the Wesleyan Conference, London, Upper Canada, Sabbath 
evening, June, 1865, on the occasion of the death of the late Rev. 
W. L. Thornton, M.A., who was President of the Canadian Con- 
ference in 1864. The sermon was prepared and delivered at the 
request of the President of the Conference (Rev. R. Jones) and his 
advisers. The Conference requested its publication ; but though 
prepared at the time, according to the request of the Conference, the 
author omitted to send it to the press.] 

Y the economy and promise of Divine wisdom 
and goodness, " all things work together for 
good to them that love God." Thus the 
poverty of God's people issues in wealth ; the 
tears of their afflictions are transmuted into 
fountains of joy ; and the assaults of their ad- 
versaries for their destruction, no less than the prayers of 




24 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



their friends for their salvation, contribute to strengthen 
their faith and perfect their love. It is not in the shel- 
tered valley, but on the mountain top, where most ex- 
posed to winds and storms, that the oak strikes the deepest 
root : so the disciple of the Lord Jesus becomes estab- 
lished in grace by means of the very efforts which are 
made to subvert his soul. Such an one, in his hours of 
trial and conflict, will say, " nevertheless, my soul, wait 
thou still upon God, for my hope is in Him and, " the 
Lord is good to them that wait for Him." He makes 
bare His arm in their behalf by strengthening them to 
endure the trial, or by delivering them from it ; and the 
believer thus acquires a two-fold advantage : testimony to 
his own sincerity and acceptance, removing all doubt and 
uncertainty as to his filial relationship to God, and a de- 
monstration of the Divine faithfulness and power in his 
behalf — producing in his heart " the full assurance of faith 
and hope." 

It was a succession of sanctified trials and deliver- 
ances — and what trials and deliverances they were! as 
narrated in his Epistles — that enabled the Apostle Paul 
to say : "I know in whom I have believed, and am per- 
suaded that He is able to keep that which I have com- 
mitted to Him against that day." And the effect is in- 
variably the same in regard to every believer. " Tribula- 
tion worketh patience, patience experience, experience 
hope, and hope maketh not ashamed." 

What is true of each disciple of Christ is true of His 
whole Church ; and what is true in regard to the estab- 
lishment of the kingdom of God in the hearts of His 
people, is equally true in regard to its extension in the 
world* " The gates of hell," the councils and armies of 



A™ Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 



25 



the devil and his hosts, so far from having prevailed 
against the Church of Christ, have often contributed to 
promote both its purity and enlargement. The emissaries 
and servants of Satan have often thought and boasted, not 
only that they would soon crush the power of the Naza- 
rene King ; but that they had done so. Thus, during the 
Roman persecutions which for two hundred years crim- 
soned the Church of Christ, the Emperor Diocletian had 
a medal struck with this inscription: "The Christian 
name demolished, and the worship of the gods restored?' 
But the blood of the martyrs became a fruitful seed of the 
true Church's power and extension ; and, within twenty- 
five years after this medal of blasphemous triumph was 
struck, the worship of the gods ceased to be the national 
worship of the Romans— and the emblem of the cross of 
Christ was inscribed on the banners of the Empire. So, 
in the very beginning of the Church, we have an illus- 
tration of its characteristic history in the chapter before 
us : 

" Now they which were scattered abroad upon the per- 
secution that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as 
Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word 
to none but unto the Jews only." 

" And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, 
which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the 
Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus." 

" And the hand of the Lord was with them : and a 
great number believed, and turned unto the Lord." 

" Then the tidings of these things came unto the ears 
of the church which was at Jerusalem : and they sent 
forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. 
Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, 



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was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of 
heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a 
good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith : and 
much people was added unto the Lord." — Acts xi. 19-24. 

And thus in the persecutions of intolerance which pre- 
vailed to a greater or less extent in Protestant England 
during the reigns of Elizabeth, James the First, and Charles 
the First, many who loved the truth as it is in Jesus were 
then scattered abroad to America, where they planted 
trees of righteousness, which have flourished and mul- 
tiplied to this day from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to 
that of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
Thus in later times the pressure of misfortunes and 
poverty has thrust out many an emigrant from England, 
Ireland and Scotland to this continent and to this country, 
who has become the " voice of one crying in the wilder- 
ness," and the pioneer cultivator not only of moving corn- 
fields, but of wide-spread, and wide- spreading fields of 
Scriptural knowledge — the knowledge " of the only true 
God, and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent." 

In the English Wesleyan Magazine for April (1865), 
we have the following interesting statement : — " On a 
spring morning in 1760 (says an Irish authority apparently 
familiar with the local facts), a group of emigrants might 
have been seen at the Custom-house quay, Limerick, pre- 
paring to embark for America. At that time emigration 
was not so common an occurrence as it is now, and the 
Palatines from Balligarrane were accompanied to the ves- 
sel's side by crowds of their companions and friends, 
some of whom had come sixteen miles to say, 6 farewell 7 
for the last time. Oneof those aboutto leave — a young man, 
with a thoughtful look and resolute bearing— is evidently 



A Good Man^ Full of the Holy Ghost. 27 

the leader of the party ; and more than an ordinary pang 
is felt by many as they bid him farewell. He had been 
one of the first-fruits of his countrymen to Christ, had 
been the leader of their class, and in their humble chapel 
had often ministered to them the word of life. He is 
surrounded by his spiritual children and friends, who are 
anxious to have some parting words of counsel and in- 
struction. He enters the vessel, and from its side once 
more breaks among them the bread of life. And now 
the last prayer is offered ; they embrace each other ; the 
vessel begins to move. As she recedes, uplifted hands 9 
and uplifted hearts attest what all felt. But none of all 
that vast multitude felt more, probably, than that young 
man. His name is Philip Embury. His party consisted 
of his wife, Mary Switzer, to whom he had been married 
on the 27th of November, 1758, in Rathkeale church ; 
two of his brothers, and their families ; Peter Switzer, 
probably a brother of his wife ; Paul Heck and Barbara 
his wife ; Valer Tettler ; Philip Morgan, and a family of 
the Dulmages. The vessel arrived safely in New York, 
on the 10th of August, 1760. Who that pictures before 
his mind that first band of Christian emigrants, but must 
be struck with the simple beauty of the scene ? Yet who 
among the crowd that saw them leave could have thought 
that two of the little band were destined, in the mysteri- 
ous providence of God, to influence for good countless 
myriads, and their name should live as long as the sun 
and moon endure? Yet so it was. That vessel con- 
tained Philip Embury, the first class-leader and local 
preacher of Methodism on the American continent ; and 
Barbara Heck, 6 a mother in Israel ; ? one of its first mem- 
bers, the germ from which, in the good providence of God, 



28 



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has sprung the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United 
States ; a church which has now, more or less, under its 
influence about seven millions of the germinant mind of 
that new and teeming hemisphere ! — There shall be a 
handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the moun- 
tains ; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon ; and 
they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth/ " 

In the progress of this great work, more frequent and 
intimate communication has, of late years, taken place 
between the elder and junior branches of the Methodist 
family. The mutual greetings and counsels of the British 
and American connexions of the once Wesleyan body 
have been transmitted by mutual representatives. The 
last of these representatives from the Parent Church in 
Great Britain, was the late W. L. Thornton, who, last 
year, after having delivered his message of peace and love 
to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the United States, visited Canada as the Presi- 
dent of this Conference, and then the Maritime Provinces, 
as the President of the Eastern Conference of British North 
America. Immediately after his return to England, he 
was, with unprecedented unanimity, chosen President of 
the British Conference, and as such, President of the 
Wesleyan Conference in Ireland. For the first time in 
the history of Methodism, the same person was at the 
same time President of four Wesleyan Conferences, and 
representative to the General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the United States ; and while thus 
presiding over Conferences embracing some two thousand 
ministers, having the pastoral oversight of more than two 
millions of souls, he was suddenly, one Sabbath morning, 
the 5th of March, dismissed from his labours to his 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 29 

reward, giving as his last utterance on earth— 6i Thy mer- 
cies abound — Thy mercies abound V 1 

In obedience to the request of the highest officers in 
this Body, I address you on the occasion of Mr. Thorn- 
ton's decease. The text I have read suggests a simple 
and truthful description of his general character. 

I. In the description of the general character 
of this eminent minister of jesus christ, as in 
that of Apostolic Barnabas, we notice first, the 
fact that " he was a good man." — God alone is per- 
fectly and unchangeably good ; and to be a good man 
implies creation in God's image of knowledge, righteous- 
ness, and true holiness. This involves a thorough change 
of heart, for "the heart is naturally deceitful above all 
things, and desperately wicked;" or, as it is expressed in 
the 9th Article of the Church of England, " Man is very 
far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own 
nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always 
contrary to the Spirit ; and therefore, in every person 
born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and dam- 
nation." This evil heart, this sinful nature, can no more 
be changed by human culture, or human power, than can 
the dead be raised or life created by human power. " If 
any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature or, as 
the literal rendering is, it is a new creation ; " old things 
are passed away, behold " — as though the Apostle would 
have us note and admire the change — " behold all things 
are become new !" A " good man " is as much the work- 
manship of God now, as when Adam and Eve were cre- 
ated in the Divine image of righteousness and true holi- 
ness. Such was Barnabas. His goodness was not the 
" work of the flesh" — the produce of any culture or habit 



30 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



that man can effect— it was the " fruit of the Spirit," the 
effect of regenerating grace. The expression literally 
signifies, he was a kind, benevolent, tender-hearted man, 
the affections of whose heart had been cast in the mould 
of the Gospel, and renewed after the Divine image — one 
who, as"theelectof God," had put on "bowels of mercies/' 
and was peculiarly distinguished by the engaging sweet- 
ness of his spirit. Indeed, his Christian name seems to 
have been given him in direct reference to the character 
of his renewed disposition. He is first introduced to our 
notice in the fourth chapter of Acts, in the following 
w r ords : " And Joses, who by the Apostles was surnamed 
Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, the son of conso- 
lation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having 
land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the 
Apostles' feet." The circumstance here recorded of him, 
no less than the significant change in his name, is a strik- 
ing confirmation to the testimony borne to him in the 
text. The change wrought in him caused him to conse- 
crate his property as well as himself to the glory of his 
Divine Master, and in affectionate endeavours for the 
salvation of mankind. 

Such was the change wrought in the heart of President 
Thornton, which invested him in so high a degree with 
the attributes and character of " a good man." He was 
blessed naturally with an amiable disposition and high 
intellectual powers, which were developed and refined by 
an excellent classical and mathematical education, to- 
gether with careful religious instruction and training by 
his pious parents. Though, like St. Paul, as a scholar 
and religionist, he " profited above many of his fellows," 
and was no doubt regarded as a good, as well as a clever 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 31 

boy, it was not until he was "born again" — born of the 
Spirit — that he acquired those elements of goodness which 
gave character to the whole of his future life. It was 
when he was about seventeen years of age, that he yielded 
to those teachings of the Holy Spirit which effectually 
" convinced him of sin, of righteousness, and of judg- 
ment, " and made him feel and confess, as it is truly ex- 
pressed in the service of the Church of England, that he 
was a " miserable sinner," that " the remembrance of his 
sins was grievous unto him, and the burden of them in- 
tolerable." So that, as it is expressed in the same service 
for the sick, he was made to know and feel that there is 
" no other name than that of Jesus whereby we must be 
saved f and, resting his soul on that name for pardon and 
salvation, he experienced the truth of the Saviour's pro- 
mise, "he that believeth on the Son of God is passed from 
death unto life he was created anew in Christ Jesus 
unto good works ; and could attest what is stated in the 
homily of the Church of England on certain places of 
scripture : " godly men feel inwardly the Holy Ghost in- 
flaming their hearts with the fear and love of God, and 
they are miserable wretches who have not such feeling 
of God in them at all." Three years after the " translation 
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's 
dear Son," at the age of twenty, Mr. Thornton, after the 
usual trial and examinations, was received and employed 
in the Wesleyan ministry ; and, whether as a minister on 
some of the most important circuits in Great Britain for 
eleven years, or as classical and mathematical tutor in 
the Theological Institution of the Connexion during 
eight years, or during fifteen years as editor of the Wes- 
leyan Magazine, and other connexional publications, or 



3 2 



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filling the highest office in the church, or in any of the 
private relations of life ; all that heard, read, or knew him, 
bore willing and heartfelt testimony to him, as " a good 
man." 

II. i. But of Barnabas it is recorded, secondly, that 
" he was full of the Holy Ghost." It was so said 
of Stephen the first lay preacher and poor-steward, and the 
first martyr of the Church, that he was "a man full of the 
Holy Ghost." It was so said of all the members of the 
Church on the day of Pentecost, "and they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost." And, what is meant by being full 
of the Holy Ghost ? It implies two things ; first, living 
up to our privilege as believers in Christ ; secondly, spe- 
cial gifts and qualifications for the special work to which 
we may be called. In the former sense, it is common to 
all Christians; in the latter sense, it applies to those who 
are called to special work, whether as ministers or mis- 
sionaries, as leaders or other officers in the militant Church 
of Christ. 

Understanding the expression in the former sense — as 
referring to the state of the believer's mind, it implies the 
renewal of his heart and the witness of his relationship. 
By the pardon of his sins and the renewal of his heart, 
he becomes a child of God. " And because ye are sons" 
(says St. Paul), " God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son 
into your hearts, crying Abba, Father." " He that believeth 
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." " The 
Spirit of God beareth witness with our Spirit that we are 
the children of God." 

2. But, to be full of the Holy Ghost implies 
much more than hls communication as a spirit of 

ADOPTION AND WITNESS. It INVOLVES THE RECEPTION 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 33 

of Him in all His characters and offices — His teach- 
ings and convictions as a Monitor, as well as His consola- 
tions as a Comforter — His impressions as a seal of the 
Divine image, no less than His joys as an earnest of the 
final heaven. The attributes of His person, and the 
aspects of His office are not revealed that we may select 
such elements as are most agreeable to our tastes and in- 
clinations, but we are to accept Him in them all, and re- 
sist or grieve Him in none — to receive Him in the gran- 
deur and fulness of His character, as taught in His word, 
as illustrated in the person of Christ, as manifested in the 
conversion of the early Christians, as the dove that de- 
scended upon Christ, as the lambent flame that rested on 
the first disciples, as the rivers of water springing up unto 
everlasting life. 

3. Again, to be full of the Holy Ghost is to receive 
His Divine influences in all their variety, power, efficacy 
and harmony — to receive His distinct impress on all the 
faculties of the mind, according to the character and 
wants of each individual. As the same shower blesses 
the different kinds of soil according to their respective 
susceptibilities — causing the grass to spring up in the 
meadows, the grain to vegetate in the field, the trees to 
grow in the forest, and the flowers to blossom in the gar- 
den — and these garnished with every variety of hue and 
loveliness, the lily and the violet, the rose and the daisy ; 
so the Holy Spirit descending upon the moral soil, pro- 
duces convictions in the guilty, illumination in the igno- 
rant, holiness in the defiled, strength in the feeble, and 
comfort in the distressed. As the spirit of adoption, He 
excites the filial feeling and cry of Abba, Father ; as the 
spirit of witness He attests our sonship with God ; as a 
c 



34 



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spirit of holiness He imparts a pure taste and love ; as a 
spirit of life He revives religion ; as a spirit of truth He 
gives transparency to conduct ; as the spirit of glory He 
throws a radiance over character ; as the spirit of prayer 
He melts the soul into devotion ; as the spirit of grace He 
imbues with benevolence and covers the face of the land 
with the works of faith and labours of love. A Christian 
full of the Holy Ghost receives all these influences not 
only in their fulness and variety, but in their highest de- 
gree and largest exercise. As the Spirit was given to 
Christ without measure, there is nothing to restrict the 
communication of His influences to us. There is nothing 
in the abyss of eternity to measure the depths of our holy 
fear ; nothing in the heights of glory to check our loftiest 
hopes ; nothing in the dimensions of the universe to limit 
the expansion of our love. Of the first trophies of the 
cross on the day of Pentecost, it is said, " great grace was 
upon them all." This is what we need now. We have 
a great God to serve, whom we should glorify with all our 
ransomed powers of soul and body; we have a great 
work to do, a gf eat part of which remains undone ; we 
have great opposition to master and great difficulties to 
overcome. We therefore need great grace in the highest 
degree, in the fullest exercise, in the largest action. We 
need great love to melt us into compassion for the world 
that lieth in the wicked one; we need great faith to give 
us courage and intrepidity that will not cower before any 
foe or shrink before any obstacle ; we need great activity 
where so much is to be accomplished, and great hope 
where there is so much to weary and depress. We are the 
purchase of a great price ; we are entrusted with a great 
work ; we are furnished with approved and diversified 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 35 

armour and helps for our task ; exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises are given unto us for our encouragement ; 
God and men expect us to be in advance of the world, 
and in advance even of our predecessors, into whose 
labours we have entered, and the influence of whose ex- 
ample is bequeathed to, and centred upon us. Thus 
redeemed, thus supplied, thus animated, we should be 
increasing in strength, expanding in capacity, and advanc- 
ing in stature until we all come " unto a perfect man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,' , 
having every grace in possession, every grace cultivated 
in the highest degree, and every grace in the fullest 
energy, and in the most strenuous activity, for the glory 
of Christ and the conversion of the world. 

4. But furthermore, to be full of the Holy 
Ghost, is to have holy influences affect every 
power of the man to the highest attainment of 
excellence. — We may sometimes seem to ourselves to 
magnify the influences of the Holy Spirit when we repre- 
sent Him as having a sufficiency to gratify every desire 
and fill every capacity of the entire man. But the thought 
is vain, and the conception unworthy of the wealth and 
grandeur of the Holy Spirit's influences. What honour 
would it be to the Atlantic to say that its flood of waters 
could fill the winding sinuosities of a shell and satisfy the 
cravings of a marine insect? This allusion, though it 
poorly represents the amplitude and glory of the Holy 
Spirit's influences, powerfully suggests the nobleness and 
boundlessness of man's capacities ; for though we are 
less than nothing compared with the Divine fulness, we 
have such conceptions and comprehensiveness as no 
earthly ocean can satisfy— as God alone can fill, 



3 6 



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Christians become full of Divine influence only as they 
are filled with " the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." 
The Church, like the moon, grows full as it is filled by 
the Divine fountain of light and life. It is prevented 
from being always full by the interposition of the world, 
which makes her light and glory to wane and perish. As 
the spirit of the world advances, the Church wanes ; as the 
world recedes, it waxes fuller. The Church is full of light 
and glory only as it is filled with the influences of the Holy 
Ghost. It is only as the Church is full that it represents 
the fulness of the Spirit, and exhibits its disk expanded 
and full to a dark and benighted world. And let us not 
forget that this fulness of the Holy Spirit relates to the en- 
tire man, whose complex character renders him suscepti- 
ble not only of intellectual and moral, but of psycological 
or emotional and physical influences. I know we are apt 
to think that the Holy Spirit in training us for happiness, 
usefulness, and glory, influences our souls only, and 
not to expect Him to discipline and develop the capaci- 
ties of our entire nature. But mark the comprehensive 
and lofty conception that inspired the prayers and doc- 
trines of the Apostle to the Gentiles. In his supplication 
for the Thessalonians, he prays, "and the very God of 
peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God that your 
whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless." 
This enlarged invocation comprehends the whole man, 
and implores that his intellectual powers, his perceptions, 
his emotions, his volitions, may all be baptized with the 
Holy Spirit. The emotional sympathies and animal 
instincts, the sources and occasions of unhallowed desires 
and unruly passions, whether light and volatile, or morose 
and melancholy ? are all to be moderated, subdued ? and 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 



37 



sanctified by the mild but sovereign sway of the Heavenly 
Comforter. Even the body itself, with all its tendencies 
and operations of solids and fluids, all its appetites 
and propensities, are to be brought under the control and 
direction of the Spirit of God ; so that instead of the body 
being the prison of the soul, it may become its mansion— 
instead of being the sepulchre of Divine influences, it may 
become their temple. " Know ye not that your body is 
the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye 
have of God." Sin does not reign in their mortal bodies, 
that they should obey it in the lusts thereof ; neither do they 
yield their members instruments of unrighteousness unto 
sin, but yield themselves unto God as those that are 
alive from the dead, and their members as instruments 
of righteousness unto God. The Holy Spirit so disci- 
plines and educates the corrupt, dying, clogging bodies of 
good men, as to make them alive and vigorous in labours 
for Christ. The members of iniquity are emancipated 
from their thraldom, and become the laborious servants 
" to righteousness unto holiness." The ears, the eyes, 
the hands, the feet, all the powers of conception, sensa- 
tion, feeling, action, are sanctified, combined, consecrated 
to execute the plans and administer the charities of mercy 
and salvation. 

5. Once more, to be full of the Holy Ghost is 
to have the emotions and actions corresponding, to 

THE LARGEST EXTENT, WITH THE CHARACTER AND DIS- 
POSITIONS of the Holy Spirit. The operations of the 
Holy Spirit evidence themselves in right feelings, as well 
as in right conduct, and are manifest no less in a man's 
actions than in his emotions. Men are constituted to be 
as much affected, and in countless instances multitudes 



38 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



are as much influenced by the emotions of others as by 
their words and actions. At present it is a sort of canon 
or church rule with some to discountenance in Christians 
all deep-toned language of religious emotion, and repress 
all the symptoms of powerful feeling of the wounded and 
broken heart, as well as of the rejoicing spirit. But it is 
worthy of remark, that the inspired writers trace all irre- 
ligion to the absence of right feelings and the presence 
and power of bad emotions. Irreligion is described as 
not liking to retain the knowledge of God, " as caring for 
none of these things," as " despising the spirit of grace," 
as " hardening the heart ; " — a class of images exclusive 
of holy emotions, but expressive of bad ones. The essence 
of conversion consists in the change of man's heart— a 
word universally used to express the seat and fountain of 
emotion — of love and hatred, of joy and sorrow, of hope 
and fear. The influences of the Holy Spirit benefit 
man only so far as they affect his heart. A religious state 
towards God is described as " fear of the Lord," " the 
sorrow after a godly sort," " the love of Christ," "the 
hope that maketh not ashamed," " the joy unspeakable 
and full of glory," "the bowels of mercies." These are 
all emotions, and have their natural and appropriate lan- 
guage to manifest their presence. In all rational pursuits, 
except religion, men admire feeling, fervid zeal, and even 
enthusiasm. What is a poet without fire? an orator with- 
out fervour ? a sculptor without ardour ? a musician with- 
out emotion ? a patriot without feeling ? When we ex- 
pect obedience even in a child, it is not the mere per- 
formance of the prescribed act that we regard, but the 
manner in which it is done and the feeling with which it 
is performed. In all our actions, God looks at the 
Jieart, at the state of the emotions, and marks and 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 39 

records whether that corresponds with the service 
offered ; and whatever splendour there may be in the ser- 
vice performed, and however much admired by men, if it 
is not accompanied by the heart and the appropriate 
emotion,it is unacceptable and even abhorrent to Him who 
searcheth the heart and judgeth not according to outward 
appearance. Religion claims the priority and pre-emi- 
nence in every man, in every faculty, in every power, in 
every affection and passion, in every appetite and propen- 
sity ; and these it will not attain until it controls all the 
emotions. Then the " heart burns within," and the man 
becomes "fervent in the spirit. M It is the burning heart 
that bears all the sway in the soul, and marshals and 
influences all the energies of the mind and body. The 
understanding may be clear and the judgment sober, but 
if the heart does not burn, a man cannot be truly religious, 
much less filled with the Holy Spirit. He may under- 
stand that God is great, and yet fear Him not, and even 
blaspheme His holy name. He may understand that sin 
is evil, and yet live in it. He may understand that Christ 
is worthy of all acceptation, and yet practically reject him. 
It is not until the heart feels under these truths, and burns 
under their influences, that the actions will correspond with 
the character and disposition of the Holy Spirit. Religion 
will never become the master principle, to sanctify every- 
day life, to pervade every social circle, to regulate every 
pursuit, to subject everything to Christ, until it warms, 
dilates, purifies and inflames the affections and emotions 
of the heart. 

We cannot acquire eminence and mastery in any pur- 
suit, much less in religion, without fervour and unflinching 
energy. Mark the men who are described in the Scrip- 



40 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

tures as "full of the Holy Ghost;" the awakening and 
disturbing ministrations of John the Baptist — the bold and 
rousing address of Peter on the day of Pentecost — the 
stirring appeals of Paul— the fervours of Barnabas — above 
all, the labours, the self-denials, the tears, the travels, the 
teachings, the elevation of Him who went about doing 
good, and who melted in pity over the sinners of Jerusalem. 
On the other hand, formality in religion is the name of 
being alive while practically dead; and lukewarmness in 
a church is like the heat of a corpse exposed to the sun — - 
even its warmth is offensive — -while true religion is life, 
moving, breathing, vigorous life, corresponding with the 
living influences of the Holy Spirit. We should, there- 
fore, employ whatever means we find by experience to be 
adapted to excite our religious emotions. The object to 
be aimed at in the conversion of men is to move their 
affections. If in the pulpit, the Sunday-school, or the 
social circle, we aim only at the understanding, forgetting 
that a man has a heart as well as a head, and that if the 
latter is the seat of the thinking power, the former is the 
seat of the moving power — the Devil will have no appre- 
hension of loss— this citadel of his power is not endangered 
— he still keeps his goods in peace. His dread, his enmity 
is against a religion of feeling. The affections are his 
strong-hold. This citadel of carnal affections must be 
burnt by the fire of the Holy Ghost or he will continue in 
undisturbed possession. The character of Christians 
should, therefore, correspond with the attributes of the 
Holy Spirit. They must yield to every impression of His 
seal, and conform to the entire mould of the Divine 
influences, in diversified aspects. Is the Spirit fire? 
Then should we kindle like seraphs in our religion. Is 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 41 

the Spirit a well of living water ? Then should every rill 
of thought, every current of affection, every stream of life 
flow in purity, in usefulness, for the irrigation of the arid 
waste, and for the growth and fruitfulness of every tree 
planted by the rivers of water. Is the Spirit a dove ? Our 
breast should be as harmless and placid as the lake where 
the halcyon builds its nest and makes its home. Is the 
Spirit wind? Then let the whole forest of the affections 
and passions move before the gale. To be "full of the 
Holy Ghost " is to have every form and element of 
religious character, and every mode and degree of devout 
feeling, baptised and filled with the Spirit of God. 

Such, my brethren, is briefly the import of the phrase, 
" full of the Holy Ghost/' as applied to Christian experi- 
ence. It is the blood-bought privilege and high vocation 
of every member of the Church of Christ \ and " if any 
man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His." 
This privilege and character seems to have been attained 
and exhibited in a high degree throughout his whole 
Christian life, by our dear departed friend Mr. Thornton, 
as attested by his colleagues and others who best knew 
him in England. During the fortnight that he was a guest 
in my house, I was deeply impressed with his habitual 
nearness to God in the whole frame and temper of his 
mind and spirit; with his free and reverential access 
to the Throne of Grace ; with the exuberant and melt- 
ing influences of the Holy Spirit in his devotions and con- 
versation. 

II. But the phrase, " Full of the Holy Ghost/' 

HAS REFERENCE TO THE SPECIAL GIFTS AND QUALIFICA- 
TIONS FOR THE SPECIAL WORK TO WHICH WE ARE CALLED, 
AS WELL AS TO THE STATE OF MIND IN WHICH A BELIEVER 



42 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

LIVES UP TO HIS PRIVILEGE AS A MEMBER OF CHRIST'S 

Church.- — These gifts were miraculously and variously 
imparted to the Apostles, and many members of the pri- 
mitive church. " To one was given by the Spirit, the 
word of wisdom ; to another, the word of knowledge by 
the same Spirit ; to another, faith by the same Spirit ; to 
another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to 
another, working of miracles ; to another, prophecy ; to 
another, discerning of spirits • to another, divers kinds 
of tongues ; to another, the interpretation of tongues. 
But all these worketh that self same Spirit, dividing to 
every man severally as He will." " When He ascended 
up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. 
And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and 
some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers ; for the 
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for 
the edifying of the body of Christ." It appears that Bar- 
nabas possessed several of these gifts, and that in a high 
degree ; and in respect to these, as well as in regard to 
his experience, he is described as "full of the Holy 
Ghost." 

Though some of the miraculous gifts employed in the 
first establishment of Christianity have not been perpetu- 
ated, and were not, even at first, marks of superior piety 
in those who possessed them, yet the power of the Holy 
Ghost has been ever manifested, as it is still, in the selec- 
tion and qualifications of instruments to accomplish the 
work of Christ's Church. The history of the Church in 
all ages since apostolic times furnishes illustrations of 
this ; but there are certain epochs in the Church's as in 
the world's history, which are truly creative epochs, when 
intense feelings preternaturally elevate all the powers. 



A Good Ma?i y Full of the Holy Ghost^ 43 

Such preeminently was the apostolic age ; such also was 
the age of the reformation ; and such the age of the great 
Wesleyan revival. Such, indeed, is the case wherever 
and whenever the Holy Spirit is poured out in the revi- 
val and extension of religion. ' Spiritual gifts as well as 
spiritual graces abound; for, a " spiritual gift" means 
the faculty in which the Holy Ghost reveals Himself in 
each man destined for the service of the Church. That 
in which a man's chief force lies is his gift. Whether a 
natural faculty or power sanctified and devoted, or whether 
a power newly developed and first made visible in con- 
version, is immaterial, it is equally a " spiritual gift," if 
raised up and ennobled by the spiritual life in man. 
In times of special outpourings of the Spirit, and special 
trials in the Church, these spiritual gifts are more largely 
developed and more prominently displayed. See in 
the first ministers of the Church the simplicity and 
boldness of Peter, the persuasive tenderness of John, the 
glowing ardour of Stephen, the pointed sententiousness 
of James, the captivating eloquence of Apollos, and the 
argumentative power and soaring faith of Paul. Thus, in 
the Reformation of the sixteenth century, we see Luther 
and Melancthon one in mind and heart, but widely differ- 
ent in character and gifts. " I " says Luther, " clear the 
ground, and Melancthon sows the seed." In England, 
the same adaptation of diversity of gifts with unity of 
purpose for the great work of Reformation is seen in the 
learning and prudence of Cranmer, the judgment and 
firmness of Ridley, the guileless honesty and popular elo- 
quence of Latimer. In later, but scarcely less eventful 
times, we see the diversity of gifts with great grace devel- 
oped and co-operating in the one divine work of reviving 



44 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

religion and spreading Scriptural holiness, the active, 
convincing, illuminating, practical mind of John Wesley, 
the poetic fire and manly eloquence of Charles Wesley, 
the hallowed vehemence of Whitfield, the intellectual 
acuteness and devotional ardour of Fletcher, the quench- 
less zeal and indomitable perseverance of Coke ; and later 
still, the diversified gifts of Benson, Clarke, SutclifTe, Wat- 
son, Bunting, Newton, and numerous others, who have 
nobly fought the good fight and finished their course in 
the home work, or as missionaries in foreign lands ; 
some of them men of varied learning and mighty in the 
Scriptures ; others Boanergeses and Apolloses in the 
pulpit ; others having the gift of government ; one man 
remarkable for intellectual, another for moral qualifica- 
tions ; one highly sensitive, another firm and unim- 
pressionable ; one having exquisite taste, another having 
capacity for business ; one inventive of plans of useful- 
ness, another able and persevering to apply them, but 
all for the " perfecting of the saints, for the work of the 
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." 

Mr. Thornton did not possess the massive intellectual 
power and great administrative talent of Dr. Bunting, nor 
the philosophical grandeur and profound solemnity of 
Richard Watson, nor the personal attractions and popu- 
lar oratory of Robert Newton ; but to talents of no com- 
mon order, he added a fruitful and classic imagination 
and exquisite refinement of taste, large and varied liter- 
ary attainments, a perennial flow of devotional feeling, a 
richness of scriptural and literary illustration, a masterly 
power of exposition and pathetic appeal, which placed 
him in the first rank of his ministerial brethren, and ren- 
dered him preeminently " a son of consolation " to the 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 45 



subject of sorrow in multitudes of listening congrega- 
tions. 

In our own church in Canada, we have the same vari- 
ety and adaptation in the labourers who have been selected 
and sent forth to explore the wilderness, to level the 
moral forests, to convert the vast desert-wastes of moral 
destitution and death into waving fields of spiritual fruit- 
fulness and life, from which harvest after harvest has 
already been gathered into the heavenly garner^ with the 
shout of " harvest home," among the toil-worn labourers 
who have well performed their appointed work and been 
crowned with their endless reward* And in our minis- 
try still, to use the words of the princely Watson, 
" There are sons of thunder, and sons of consolation; 
teachers of first principles, and those who carry on the 
believer to perfection ; those who flash upon the con- 
science, and those who allure the affections. As in nature 
we have the fulminating cloud and the bright sky \ the 
gentle breeze and the resistless gale ; the descending tor- 
rent and the insinuating dew ; while the sun, as the ruler 
of the atmosphere and the lord of the seasons, tempers 
and directs all to form a perfect year, and cover the earth 
with plenteousness — so God worketh all in all." " There 
are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there 
are differences of administration, but the same Lord. 
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same 
God that worketh all in all." 

Here suffer me to pause and make two practical re- 
marks. The first relates to the mutual duties of those who 
are endowed with different gifts, The spirit of the twelfth 
chapter of First Corinthians, portions of which I have 
quoted, is unity in diversity — the Church one body with 



4 6 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



many members, adapted to different functions, to be mu- 
tually dependent, mutually sympathising, mutually co- 
operating, " that there should be no schism, nor division, 
in the body; but that the members should have the 
same care one for another. And whether one member 
suffer, all the members surfer with it ; or one member be 
honoured, all the members rejoice with it." As the seve- 
ral members of the body have different offices, and are 
differently honoured, so the different gifts in the ministry 
of the Church qualify for different offices and services- 
some receiving more abundant honour than others. The 
duty of those possessed of the less attractive gifts is two- 
fold — first, not to envy \ secondly, not to despond. It 
was not the Divine intention that the hand should have 
the delicacy of the eye, or the foot the power of the brain, 
or receive equal honour ; but the hand should not there- 
fore envy the eye, nor the foot the head. On the con- 
trary, that if one member be honoured, all the members 
should rejoice with it. Or, in other words, that one min- 
ister should not envy nor seek to disparage the more 
popular gifts of another, but rejoice in the honour done to 
any one member of the body as honour done to all, as 
we are all members one of another, and " God hath set 
the members every one of them in the body as it hath 
pleased him." It is enjoined, secondly, that those pos- 
sessed of the less imposing and less popular gifts should 
not despond or complain. It is a frequent temptation to 
an ardent mind to be discouraged and dissatisfied with his 
appointed lot believing that injustice is done to his merits, 
and that he could serve God and the Church better in 
some other situation. To every such man the Apostle 
speaks, telling him that although the feet are not the head, 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 4? 

nor the ear the eye, it is not less a part of the body — that 
the body cannot be all eye, all ear, all hand — that the 
variety of the parts is essential to the perfection of the 
whole, and the strength of the whole consists in the unity 
of the parts, and the perfect manner in which each part 
fulfils its functions — that it is the duty of each man to try 
to be himself — to try to do his own duty — that if each 
man had the spirit of the cross, the spirit that seeks 

- 1 To be little and unknown, 
Loved and prized by God alone." 

it would not matter to him, in the strange and curious 
clock-work of the world, whether he were doing the work 
of the mainspring, or that of one of the inferior parts. 

Again, the Apostle enforces a two-fold duty also on 
those who are gifted with a higher order of talents — that 
of humility and sympathy. They were not to despise their 
less gifted brethren. As in the natural body the rudest 
parts are the most useful, and the delicate parts require 
most care ; as in the body politic, what are called the 
menial trades and employments are the most necessary, 
since a nation can exist without an astronomer or philo- 
sopher, but not exist without the day-labourer ; so the 
Church may do without the brilliant orator, but not with- 
out the laborious evangelist and pastor. The musician 
and artist may be dispensed with — as luxuries not essen- 
tial to our existence — but we cannot exist without the 
wood-chopper and the ploughman. 

Then there is the duty of sympathy as well as of humi- 
lity on the part of the more honoured members of the 
body. The life of Christ pervades every member of His 
body, the Church ; and the law of that life is sympathy. 



48 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



as St. Paul expresses it in the 26th verse : " And whether 
one member suffer, all the members suffer witn it." 

My second practical remark is, the lesson taught by St* 
Paul in the 13th chapter of Corinthians in continuation 
of the 1 2th — to distinguish carefully between gifts and 
graces. Both are of God ; both are even to be coveted; 
but to the grace of love, with its train of heavenly virtues, 
the tongues of men and of angels, and the gifts of pro- 
phecy, of vast knowledge, of mighty faith, of martyr hero- 
ism, of boundless liberality, are as sounding brass or 
a tinkling cymbal A man of eloquence, learning, skill, 
may be a good man ; but he may also be proud, mean, 
obstinate, selfish. Gifts are what a man has, graces are 
what he is. We may admire the gifts, and yet despise 
the possessor of them ; but we must ever honour and 
press to our hearts the man who is filled with the grace 
that " suffer eth long and is kind," that " envieth not," 
that "vaunteth not itself," is "not puffed up, behaveth 
not itself unseemely, seeketh not her own, is not easily 
provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 
rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, endure th all 
things, hopeth all things, never faileth." 

Let us, my brethren, " desire spiritual gifts," and 
" covet earnestly the best gifts" — that is, pray, study, 
labour, contend for them ; and especially those gifts 
which are best — that is, which are most useful, which will 
tend to comfort most hearts, save most souls, bring most 
glory to God ; but let us ever do so in connexion with the 
more excellent way of love— the image of God in the soul 
of man, the balm of earth, the essence of heaven. 

III. The last particular mentioned in the cha- 
racter OF AN APOSTOLIC MINISTER IS, THAT HE " WAS 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 49 

full of faith/' Now as faith in general is reliance upon 
testimony, and respects solely the veracity and ability of 
the testifier ; so the faith which constitutes a man a be- 
liever before God, and which qualifies him for God's work, 
is simple and absolute reliance upon God's word, on the 
single ground that He is a God that cannot lie and is able 
to perform what He has promised. It is naked trust in 
the Divine veracity and power irrespective of human prob- 
abilities, and against all human probabilities. It was 
without, above, and even against any process of reason- 
ing, and against all human probability, that Abraham 
should have a seed, and that in his seed all the nations 
of the earth would be blessed. But God promised it, 
and Abraham believed Him ; and on the testimony of 
his covenant-God alone he acted — believed God in hope 
and against hope, and it was counted to him for righteous- 
ness, and procured him the appellation of the father of the 
faithful. Thus Paul was assured by a messenger of God 
that not a soul on board the foundering ship would be 
lost. Paul believed it, though the howling winds, the 
surging waves, the crumbling vessel declared speedy 
destruction ; and according to the faith of Paul all were 
saved. Thus the sinner, crushed beneath the weight of 
guilt and sin, relies for pardon and salvation upon Christ 
alone, who has promised to save unto the uttermost all that 
come unto God by Him, and the guilty, helpless, misera- 
ble sinner is pardoned, is ingrafted into Christ, and be- 
comes a partaker of the life and glory of Christ. Thus 
the minister of Christ — the Barnabas who is full of faith 
— having rested on Christ alone for his personal salvation 
— having felt the power of it in his own experience of par- 
don, of a new life, of spiritual illumination, of zeal for the 



50 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit 

Divine glory, and of compassion for a world lying in the 
wicked one ; believing beyond a doubt that the truth 
which he has embraced and the cause which he has 
espoused is of God, and that God will grant to him every 
needful degree of strength, light, and comfort for the work 
to which He has called him, shield the Church by His pro- 
tection, enrich and perpetuate it by His blessing ; he is 
not moved by any danger, is not deterred by any foe, is 
not discouraged by any obstacles, is not wearied in any 
labour. He embraces the whole promise and revelation 
of God with the tenacity of life itself. He is filled with it 
—his understanding, his conscience, his will, his affec- 
tions, all rest on the testimony of God who cannot lie, 
and for the fulfilment of whose every word he looks with 
the certainty of a realized fact— his faith being the sub- 
stance, or subsistence, of things hoped for, and the evi- 
dence, or demonstration, of things not seen. 
- " It was thus that Barnabas, " full of faith," enduring like 
Moses, as seeing Him who is invisible, was qualified to 
animate and encourage the infant Church at Antioch to 
fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life. 
The tenderness of his heart, the intrepidity of his spirit, 
the graces and gifts of the Holy Ghost, and the mighty 
faith with which he was filled, all fitted him for the varied 
offices of a nursing father to new born babes in Christ, a 
son of consolation to the afflicted and distressed, a preacher 
of the unsearchable riches of Christ, a leader of the Lord's 
hosts against error, ignorance and sin. 

In all that has been said in reference to our departed 
President Thornton, as well as from my own brief ac- 
quaintance with him, no feature of his character was more 
apparent than his unwavering confidence in the God 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 51 

whom he served, and his entire faith in the doctrines, and 
promises, and assured triumphs of the Gospel which he 
preached. His religious experience appears never to have 
undergone an eclipse, but to have been as a " shining 
light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
He seems never to have wavered in his profession of faith 
and doctrine, but, as he advanced in experience and years, 
to have increased in the riches of the full assurance of 
faith and understanding unto the end. 

I ought not in conclusion to omit the more specific 
mention of some characteristics of Mr. Thornton and his 
ministry. 

1. Though he was by no means unattractive in his 
person, he had not the physical advantages which 
invested Richard Watson with such majesty, and 
Dr. Bunting with such authority, and Dr. Newton 
with such charms, but he had that which is the 

FOUNDATION OF ALL TRUE GREATNESS, and which will 

always command attention and respect — strong vigorous 
sense — what the great Locke calls, " large, sound, round- 
about sense," and was therefore distinguished for just 
thinking, powerful reasoning, practical and pungent ad- 
dresses to the understanding, the conscience and the 
heart. 

2. He was a man of deep piety — evincing to all with 
whom he had intercourse that he was not merely a moral, 
an amiable, a gifted, a learned, a serious-minded man, 
but a truly converted, a regenerated man — not having a 
shadow of doubt of it in his own mind, and leaving not the 
slightest doubt of it in the minds of others — living in habi- 
tual and intimate communion with the " general assembly 
of the Church of the first born, with the spirits of the just 



52 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

made perfect, and with the God the Judge of all, and with 
Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, 99 having no doubt 
of the system of truth which he preached, and fully believ- 
ing that God would bless it to the saving of the world. 

3. He was a diligent student of the Bible ; and 
that not merely as a scholar and a theologian to 
settle doubtful questions of criticism and investigate 
great systems of doctrine, but as a travelling pilgrim, 
daily drinking from the perennial springs of ever 
fresh and ever living truths from heaven, ever instinct 
with life, ever creating rich verdure where they flow ; as 
the toiling labourer, who renews his strength not by the 
choicest produce of human skill, but by the bread which 
comes down from heaven, by every word which proceed- 
eth out of the mouth of the Lord ; as the humble disciple 
who learns his daily lessons not from the pages of some 
theological Gamaliel or some eloquent Massillon, but from 
the words of Him who spake as never man spake, and of 
those who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise ; and it is 
thus daily walking with the holy prophets and apostles, 
and with their and our Lord and Master, that we imbibe 
their spirit and imitate their example. 

4. He was a man of unflagging industry. He was 
a strict economist of time, and he valued it more than 
gold. His hours of protracted labour, and the vast 
amount of work he performed, were the theme of remark 
by his colleagues and associates, and often excited their 
surprise. He felt that, not only by obligation, but by 
solemn ministerial vows, his time and strength had been 
consecrated to Christ and His Church, and that idleness 
was a violation of this two-fold compact. He was, there- 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 53 

fore, instant in season and out of season to fulfil his en- 
gagements and to finish the work which had been given 
him to do. 

5. He was a man of careful preparation for his 
public duties. Though he possessed great extempora- 
neous resources, his sermons and addresses bore marks 
of having been prepared with great care, and that care 
not less devotional than intellectual. The Rev. Samuel 
Davies, President of the College of New Jersey a century 
since, is said to have declared that " every discourse of 
his, which he thought worthy of the name of a sermon, cost 
him four days' hard study in the preparation." It is not 
surprising, therefore, that nearly more than fifty editions 
of Davies' sermons have been printed, and that they have 
been stereotyped in both Europe and America. I doubt 
not but Mr. Thornton's discourses were prepared with 
equal labour and devotion, and hence their effective power 
and great value. 

6. He was not less remarkable for his careful 
preparations for public duties than for his zeal 

AND ARDOUR IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEM. He Was ever 

ready to work even beyond his strength ; and all the 
powers and sympathies of his soul breathed in his fervent 
and copious prayers, and in the burning thoughts and 
words of his discourses. He might well say with Baxter, 

" I preach as I ne'er shall preach again, 
And as a dying man to dying men. " 

7. IT IS NOT SURPRISING, THEREFORE, THAT HE WAS 
AN EARNEST ADVOCATE AND PROMOTER OF REVIVALS OF 

religion. No feature of his prayers and discourses was 
more prominent than his imploring, and urging to seek 



54 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the influences of the Holy Spirit to sanctify and anoint 
ministers and people, to convince, convert and save sin- 
ners, and that now, and by multitudes. All his sympa- 
thies, and aspirations, and exertions were directed to the 
revival and extension of personal and family religion, and 
recognized the present manifestations and reception of 
the Gospel, as in ancient days, " in power, in the Holy 
Ghost, and in much assurance." 

8. He therefore delighted in Christian fellow- 
ship AND COMMUNION, AND URGED IT ON ALL OCCASIONS 
AND WITH GREAT FERVENCY AND AFFECTION. The claSS- 

meeting was a place of weekly resort and of hallowed de- 
light to him during all the years of his numerous public 
labours, and that testing, refreshing means of grace, as 
well as the love-feast, he commended with the sympathetic 
earnestness of personal experience as well as from con- 
viction of public duty. 

9. But his sympathies were as expressive as they 
were warm and spiritual, and his views were as 
enlarged as they were luminous and devout. he 
looked upon the conversion of the world in the economy 
and purpose of God, with as much certainty as the con- 
version of an individual, and advocated, therefore, with 
melting pathos and ceaseless perseverance, the extension 
of missions and the preaching of the Gospel to every 
creature. 

10. I WILL ONLY ADD, THAT HE WAS PRE-EMINENTLY A 
MAN OF PEACE, OF EXPANSIVE CHARITY, OF WORLD-WIDE 

sympathies. He seems to have had no enemies but 
ignorance and vice, and he was truly the " friend of all 
and the enemy of none." He enjoyed the esteem and 
fellowship of Christian brethren among the good as well 



A Good Man, Full of the Holy Ghost. 55 

as great men of all evangelical churches ; and during his 
visit to the United States and Canada, his fine poetic ima- 
gination, his wonderful resources of rich Scriptural imagery 
and historical illustration, were taxed to their utmost to 
give expression to the joyous and grateful feelings of his 
noble heart. When standing in the presence of the Ameri- 
can and Canadian Conferences, he beheld the representa- 
tives of a work of God which, in a century, had increased 
from a single company in a rigging loft in New York, less 
numerous than that assembled in an upper room at Jeru- 
salem before the day of Pentecost, to as many thousands 
of ministers and as many hundreds of thousands, and 
even millions, of church members as were probably 
gathered into the Church itself during the first century of 
its existence — causing " the wilderness and the solitary 
place to be glad for them, and the desert to rejoice and 
blossom as the rose," over a territory far more extensive 
than all Europe together with the Asia of ancient civiliza- 
tion. 

My Christian brethren, may the mantle of our departed 
President Thornton fall on us like the mantle of ascend- 
ing Elijah upon the praying Elisha ! May we be animated 
by his example, and warned by his sudden removal, to 
have our lamps trimmed and burning, to be instant in 
season and out of season, " always abounding in the work 
of the Lord, forasmuch as we know (and blessed be God 
for the knowledge !) that our labour is not in vain in the 
Lord!" 



CHRISTIANS ON EARTH AND IN 
HEAVEN. 



SERMON III. 

By REV. E. RYERSON, D.D., Chief Superin- 
tendent OF EDUCATION, TORONTO. 

" The spirits of just men made perfect." — Heb, xii. 23. 

WO things, my brethren, are fearfully certain, 
and one thing is awfully uncertain, in respect 
to our future destiny. It is certain that we 
shall all die. The sentence of death is stamp- 
ed upon our physical constitution ; it is written 
in the decrees of Providence ; and it will soon 
be executed upon every individual in this 
assembly. It is also certain that we shall all be judged 
for our conduct in this life. It is appointed unto men 
once to die, and after death the judgment. As certain as 
there is a moral government — as there is a Supreme Being 
of moral perfections — as man has intellectual and moral 
faculties and a power of volition ; so certain is it that he 
will be hereafter judged according to the deeds done in 
the body. Our individual history is written in the book 
of God's remembrance ; that history records thoughts as 




Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 57 

well as words, motives as well as actions ; and God has 
appointed a day in which He will judge us out of those 
things written in His book. The darkness is as the light 
to Him ; and every secret thing, however perpetrated in 
the loneliness of retirement or under the mantle of mid- 
night, will be brought into judgment. But while death 
and judgment are certain to us all, the time of our death 
and judgment is awfully uncertain. No age, rank, or con- 
dition is exempt from the shafts of death ; nor is there 
any rule or physiological development by which we can 
calculate the period of our future earthly existence. It 
often happens that the most robust and healthy member 
of a family is cut down, while the life of the comparatively 
feeble is protracted for many years. And so in this assem- 
bly, perhaps the very person whose appearance gives the 
strongest promise of many days and long life on earth, 
who is forming the largest schemes of future enterprise, 
and indulging the strongest hopes of future success and 
enjoyment, may, at this very moment, be the unconscious 
victim of incipient disease, and be destined to be the first 
borne to the sepulchre of the dead. We know not what 
a day shall bring forth. In the midst of life we are in 
death. 

It becomes each of us then to live in a state of daily 
preparation either for life or for death. And let it be im- 
pressed upon our minds, that the best preparation for 
death is the best fitness for life ; that the best meetness 
for entering into the society of heaven, is the best qualifi- 
cation for performing our duties to the society of earth ; 
that when we possess the mind which was in Christ, when 
" our conversation is in heaven/' and " our life hid with 
Christ in God," then we are best adapted to perform every 



58 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



part of our appointed work here and do the will of God 
on earth as angels do it in heaven. The spirit of true re- 
ligion is the spirit of heaven — is the reflection of its purity 
and benevolence ; and this life is the apprenticeship of 
heavenly knowledge and employment. 

Such is the object of this discourse; and I know not 
how I can better aid in accomplishing its purpose than by 
directing our united attention to the characteristic develop- 
ments of true religion in the persons of its disciples both 
on earth and in heaven — the former for our guidance, 
the latter for our comfort and encouragement ; just men, 
and the spirits of just men made perfect. 

The passage (see verses 22, 23, 24), of which our text 
is a part, contains the summary of the argument of this 
whole epistle — the superiority of the dispensation of the 
gospel over every preceding dispensation ; and the lofty 
and majestic figures of this passage are only excelled by 
the overwhelming grandeur and sublimity of the truths 
which it unfolds. Here no new religion is taught, but 
the most perfect dispensation of the first and the only true 
religion. Here the infinite benignity of God on Mount 
Zion is presented in inviting contrast with His unpro- 
pitiated majesty on Mount Sinai. Here Jesus with the 
new covenant and blood of sprinkling is exhibited in the 
place of Moses and the thunders and the lightnings and 
the tempest and the thick darkness of the burning moun- 
tain. Here, instead of being the trembling spectators of 
terror and of death, and the isolated occupants of a tem- 
porary habitation, believers are represented as denizens 
of a heavenly city — forming a part of a general assembly, 
privileged, sanctified, and consecrated to God as the first- 
born — attended by an innumerable company of angels— 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 59 

governed and rewarded by God the Judge of all through 
Jesus the Mediator — and associated with the spirits of the 
just men made perfect — those first trophies of Redeem- 
ing grace, and brightest gems in the diadem of Mediatorial 
splendour ; who had " through faith subdued kingdoms, 
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the 
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped 
the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, 
waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the 
aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again ; 
and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that 
they might obtain a better resurrection : and others had 
trial of cruel mockings and scourgings — yea, moreover, of 
bonds and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword : 
they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins ; being 
destitute, afflicted, tormented : they wandered in deserts, 
and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 
Of whom the world was not worthy. 

It is to the spirits of these just men made perfect that 
the Apostle appears chiefly to refer in the text. They 
are called just or righteous, expressive of their relation and 
character on earth ; they are represented as made perfect, 
indicative of their state and character in heaven ; the two 
topics of our present discourse. 

I. They are called just or righteous. This in- 
cludes three things : — the justification of their persons — 
the rectitude of their nature — the purity of their lives. 

i. These men being just or righteous implies the justifica- 
tion of their persons. They were once sinners — were by 
nature children of wrath even as others,— and were also 
guilty of the practice of sin and subject to its condemna- 



60 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

tion of death. This is the sentence of our race. " Death 
has passed upon all men, for all have sinned/' These 
just were therefore once unjust ; these righteous were 
once unrighteous ; and in themselves and of themselves, 
they stood in the same relation and were under the same 
penalty with you and withme and all other sinners of man- 
kind. How, then, were they made righteous? How were 
they made just, or justified from all things written in the 
law against them ? Not by the law ; for law cannot, in its 
nature, admit of pardon. Not by works of the law ; for 
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. But 
they were made righteous through the merits of Him who 
is the " end of the law for righteousness to every one that 
believeth." God " hath sent forth His Son, made under 
the law, that He might redeem them that were under the 
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." " He 
hath made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us ; that 
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 
The sacrifice of Christ is the price of our redemption ; 
and the value of that price is commensurate with the 
guilt of the whole human race. " He is the propitiation 
for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the sins 
of the whole world?' a All we like sheep have gone 
astray : and the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity 
of us all" The spirit of every just person in heaven owes 
his deliverance from the curse of the law to the obedience 
of Christ. The Church on earth and in heaven is the 
purchase of His blood. The death of Christ is the life of 
the world. 

But it does not follow that because Jesus Christ " tasted 
death for every man," every man will therefore be saved. 
The Saviour must be received as well as provided ; the 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 61 

medicine must be taken as well as prepared, in order to 
cure ; uneaten food will not nourish \ the bread from 
heaven gives life only to those that eat it. " He that be- 
lieveth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved ; he that 
believeth not shall be damned." As there is no other 
name under heaven given among men whereby we may 
be saved but the name of Jesus, so faith in His name is 
the only way of being saved by Him. " Abraham believed 
God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness ; ; ' 
and the spirits of all the just persons in heaven were made 
righteous in the same way — the divinely appointed way 
of justification by faith. 

What then is involved in that faith on account of which 
we are accounted just or righteous before God ? To de- 
pend upon Christ for deliverance from the wrath to come 
clearly supposes a consciousness of danger ; and to rely 
upon Him for the pardon of sin necessarily implies a sense 
of guilt. Hence alarm, disquietude, and sorrow for sin ; 
hence the penitent exclamation in the Liturgy of the 
Church of England, " The remembrance of our sins is 
grievous unto us, and the burthen of them is intolerable" — 
language expressive of the most poignant grief of heart 
and the deepest oppression of spirit ; and hence earnest 
and importunate seeking of deliverance from anguish so 
distressing and a burthen so intolerable. The intensity 
and bitterness of penitential sorrow, produced by this in- 
cipient work of the Holy Spirit in " convincing of sin, of 
righteousness, and of a judgment to come," differ in de- 
gree and mode of expression according to constitutional 
temperament, diversity of circumstances, and the pur- 
poses of sovereign grace. In some instances the heart is 
gently opened like that of Lydia ; or gradually prepared 



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like those of Cornelius and the Ethiopian Treasurer ; or 
suddenly pricked under the divinely anointed preaching 
of the word, like the three thousand converts on the day 
of Pentecost ; or seized with the deepest anguish through 
the instrumentality of some remarkable Providence, like 
the persecuting Saul and the Philippian Gaoler. But 
whatever diversity there may be in the circumstances or 
instrumentality of this preparatory part of the work of 
justification by faith, it is the " manifestation of the same 
Spirit given to each to profit withal ; " it is in all the same 
discovery of danger, the same consciousness of guilt, the 
same contrition of spirit, the same renunciation of sin, 
the same inquiry after the way of salvation, the same flee- 
ing for refuge to the hope set before them in the Gospel, 
the same exclusive reliance upon the merits of Christ as 
the ground of acceptance with God. Though all justified 
persons may not have experienced an equal degree of 
that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salva- 
tion, not to be repented of ; yet all have experienced such 
a degree of it as to feel sin to be their burden and their 
ruin — to groan for deliverance from its bondage— to be 
willing to give up all for the righteousness of Christ ; to 
be saved in God's own appointed way. And when they 
were thus disposed and enabled to renounce all depend- 
ence upon themselves or their works, to forsake every 
lying vanity, to rely upon the sacrifice of their great High 
Priest alone for pardon and acceptance with God, then 
did they obtain " redemption in His blood even the for- 
giveness of sin." " Being justified by faith, they had 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Their 
condemnation was succeeded by pardon, and their sor- 
row by joy ; the spirit of bondage was followed by the 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 63 

spirit of adoption ; and the depressing fears of the con- 
demned sinner were exchanged for the grateful emotions 
of the justified believer. 

It is thus that man becomes just with God ; it is thus 
the spirits made perfect in heaven become "just men" 
on earth ; and whosoever shall attempt to climb up any 
other way will be treated as a thief or a robber. But their 
being just or righteous includes, 

2. The rectitude of their natures. They were the sub- 
jects of a real as well as relative change ; for they were 
sinful by nature, as well as sinners by practice. They 
were born in sin — were dead in trespasses and sins — 
were without inward holiness as well as outward right- 
eousness. We may sometimes be inclined to the impres- 
sion that the just persons mentioned in the Scriptures — • 
the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles— were of a better 
moral constitution by nature than ourselves or than the 
rest of mankind. But they inherited the same corrupt 
nature — were subjects of the same moral weakness and 
depravity — men of like passions with ourselves. Sin is 
the disease of our nature as well as the crime of our race. 
Its corruption pervades all the powers of the soul, and 
taints the very imaginations of the thoughts of the heart. 
It envelops our minds in darkness \ it inflames our hearts 
with enmity ; it pollutes all the streams of thought, of 
feeling, and of action. There is neither strength nor 
soundness in any part of man's moral constitution. 4 'The 
whole head is sick and the whole heart faint ; " and the 
wounds and bruises and putrifying sores of sin extend 
from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. In 
the flesh — that is the unrenewed nature — of the spirits of 
the just made perfect, there dwelt no good thing, any 



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more than in that of other men ; but as they were par- 
doned, so were they adopted and made children of God 
by faith in Jesus Christ ; were made new men in order to 
being made perfect men — created anew after the image of 
God in righteousness and true holiness. Their under- 
standings were enlightened to see the evil of sin and the 
necessity and excellence of holiness • their consciences 
were quickened from slumbering insensibility to a lively 
attestation of the truth ; their wills were brought from 
obstinate hostility to ready obedience ; and their desires 
and affections, their hopes and their joys, were transferred 
from things earthly and sinful to things divine and eternal. 

Such a change is widely and essentially different from 
the results of natural amiableness of disposition, educa- 
tional training, or intellectual refinement. The young 
man in the Gospel who had outwardly " kept all the com- 
mandments from his youth up," and Saul of Tarsus who 
was throughout his early life " blameless touching the 
righteousness of the law/' lacked the essential element of 
this great inward transformation from " darkness unto 
light and from the power of Satan unto God," as much as 
the grossest publicans and sinners. It is the gift of 
grace, and not the production of nature ; it is the work 
of the Spirit of God in the soul, and not the influence of 
one human mind over another ; it is the divine creation 
of light and love where none existed, and not the mere 
growth of intellectual and social culture. " That which 
is born of the flesh is flesh " — is sinful, unholy, depraved 
— however educated and refined ; and " that which is 
born of the spirit is spirit " — partakes of the holiness of 
the Spirit by whose agency it is begotten— whatever may 
have been its previous state and character. To be in 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 65 

Christ — to belong to Him, to believe in Him, to be a 
Christian — is identical with being the subject of a new 
creation. " If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new 
creature/' or it is a new creation ; " old things are passed 
away ; behold all things are become new." 

In this new birth — this spiritual resurrection with Christ 
— this "renewing of the Holy Ghost " — we have the foun- 
dation of filial confidence and affection, the elements of 
Christian character and enjoyment, the vital springs of 
religious devotion and activity. " Because ye are sons, 
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, 
crying Abba, Father." " The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spirit that we are children of God." The life of 
Christ becomes our life. " Christ lives within us ; and 
the life we live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son 
of God." Our hearts are made the temples of the Holy 
Ghost. God walks and dwells in us, and manifests Him- 
self unto us as He does not unto the world. Where God 
dwells by the light and power of His Spirit, there must 
be peace, joy, and love ; and that love is stronger than 
any earthly affection. This is the philosophy of inward, 
experimental, practical Christianity ; this was the power 
which enabled those just persons " of whom the world 
was not worthy," to endure privations and sufferings, the 
very recital of which thrills the mind with horror ; this 
was the mysterious energy which filled the heart of the 
Primitive Church, and prompted its members to such 
works of faith and labours of love; this is "the love of 
God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost/' which 
is the characteristic and privilege of all true Christians, 
and which develops itself in corresponding affection for 
God's people, in earnest desires and efforts to promote 

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His glory, and in a holy delight in the divine word and 
ordinances. Such is the spirit of adoption, the spirit of 
the new creation in Christ Jesus— that rectitude of their 
natures which constituted the internal character of the 
"just men" of our text. But their being just implies - 

3. The purity of their lives. The root of faith produces 
the fruit of holiness. They were not only pardoned and 
adopted, but were "sanctified by faith which was in 
Christ." Their union with Him produced conformity to 
Him. The law of God written in their hearts produced 
obedience to that law in their lives. Being born of the 
Spirit, they lived after the Spirit, and thus fulfilled the 
righteousness of the law, and obtained the appellation of 
just or righteous ; for " he that doeth righteousness is 
righteous." The quality of the fruit corresponds with 
the character of the tree. The life is the development of 
the heart. Badness of life cannot be associated with 
goodness of heart. A pure fountain cannot send forth a 
polluted stream. When the heart is renewed, the life will 
be reformed. When Christ is enthroned in the heart, He 
will reign in the life. " God is light" and " God is love? 
those who " dwell in God and He in them," will there- 
fore be holy and merciful. This is the spring and princi- 
ple of all true morality. It originates in God ; it con- 
sists in the love of God ; it acts in obedience to God. 
" Love is obedience in the heart ; obedience is love in 
the life." Hence " this is the love of God, that ye keep 
His commandments." There is no love of God without 
keeping His commandments ; neither is there any keep- 
ing of the commandments without the love of God. 
Morality is therefore the offspring of religion ; religion is 
the life of God in the soul of man — the " love of God 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 67 

shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given unto 
us ; " and the true manifestation of that life and that love 
is in the gift and person and work of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who is our sanctification as well as righteousness. 
He is the source of purity as well as of pardon. His 
blood not only redeems us from the condemnation of sin, 
but " cleanses us from all sin " itself ; and the spirits of 
just men made perfect ascribe to Him all the glory of 
their being " washed from their sins in His own blood." 

We here see the inseparable connexion between the 
new heart and the new life — between the love of Christ 
in the heart and the holiness of Christ in the life. We 
also see the difference between the principle and peculiar 
character of Scriptural holiness or morality and the ethics 
of heathenism or human philosophy. The principle of 
the one is love ; the principle of the other is fear. In the 
one the love of God is everything • in the other it is no- 
thing. The former extends to the motives and latent 
springs of actions ; the latter is limited to the actions 
themselves. The former is the instinctive working of a 
renewed nature, the practical expression of the " law of 
God written in the heart," and is therefore the perfect 
" law of liberty ; " the latter is a system of restraints for 
conventional purposes, without authority or life, and 
which leaves both its teachers and disciples " servants of 
corruption, while they promise themselves liberty." The 
one is God working in us both to will and to do of His 
good pleasure \ the other is the Leopard labouring to 
change his spots, and the Ethiopian his skin. 

Thus, purity of life— embracing the whole circle of 
Christian virtues — is the emanation of purity of heart ; 
and in proportion to our inward rectitude will be our out- 



68 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



ward obedience. When the heart is perfectly renewed 
" in the image of God in righteousness and true holi- 
ness," then will we esteem " all His precepts in all things 
to be right" When we love God with all our hearts, 
then will we serve Him with all our strength. The "just 
men " of our text were therefore " blameless and harm- 
less, the sons of God without rebuke" — walking in all the 
commandments of God and shining as lights in the world. 
They " wrought righteousness' ' in the largest sense, as the 
business of their lives, as the principles and spirit of it 
had been wrought in their hearts. They worshipped 
God ; they reverenced and honoured His sanctuary ; they 
loved and obeyed His word ; they sought and promoted 
His glory; they cultivated the spirit of peace, of brotherly 
kindness and charity, and did good unto all men as they 
had opportunity and ability. They were the workman- 
ship of God and His witnesses ; and so are all true be- 
lievers. They have been created " anew in Christ Jesus 
unto good works/' and their works delightfully correspond 
with the character of their new creation — " having their 
fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." 

II. Their Perfection is not Absolute — so as to 
admit of no increase or degrees. God alone is absolutely 
perfect. Absolute perfection is an attribute of infinity. 
No finite being can be absolutely perfect any more than 
he can be infinite. The import of the term " perfect " 
must, therefore, be limited by the condition and nature of 
that to which it is applied. The works of nature are per- 
fect; but theirs is a natural perfection. They do not 
possess intellectual or moral powers ; they are therefore 
incapable of an intellectual or moral perfection. Now, the 
perfection of the spirits of the just in heaven is adapted 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 69 

to their state and character, and implies a completeness 
of that security and of those intellectual and moral quali- 
ties, qualifications and pleasures which they possessed and 
enjoyed in an imperfect degree on earth. 

1. They are made perfect in their physical and intellectual 
powers. I here speak not merely of happy disembodied 
spirits, but of saints glorified in both body and soul in 
heaven. Their natural bodies were feeble, decaying, dy- 
ing bodies —the subjects of various diseases and of speedy 
dissolution. After the close of the service in Montreal on 
last Sabbath evening, I was informed that a gentleman 
at the door of the vestry wished to speak to me. I there 
met an old man bowed down with weakness, palsied in 
every limb, and leaning upon the arm of another. He 
reached out his trembling hand, and in a feeble, tremu- 
lous voice saluted me. I told him I did not recollect 
him ; he feebly replied, " Lusher/' I was affected to 
see the once accomplished and able Preacher of the Gos- 
pel (Rev. Robert L. Lusher) a shattered wreck of what 
he was when I had previously seen him in the day of his 
vigour and power, and I could but give utterance to the 
first impression of my mind — " Sir, your present weakness 
will soon be turned into strength." Yes, my brethren, 
ministers and their wives, no less than others, are sub- 
jects of feebleness, sickness and death. By what I feel 
in myself, I am reminded that I must soon go the way of 
my fathers, and that the shortness of the time to work 
here requires promptitude and diligence. But how elevat- 
ing and delightful is the thought, that though the body is 
is sown in corruption it shall be raised in incorruption, and 
shall therefore be incapable of dissolution, or the weakness, 
the wrinkles or locks of decrepitude and age; that though 



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sown in dishonour, this " vile body " shall be raised in 
glory " fashioned like unto His glorious body according 
to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all 
things unto Himself that though sown a mortal body, it 
shall " put on immortality," and therefore be insusceptible 
of death — death itself being " swallowed up in victory 
that though "sown in weakness, it shall be raised in 
power — a power how great we cannot now comprehend 
— a power adapted to the varied and ceaseless employ- 
ments of immortality — a power "equal to the angels." 
Ah ! how different did the body of Moses appear when 
he was trembling at the base of Mount Sinai, and the 
body of Elijah when he was fleeing from the face of Ahab, 
and when they appeared with the transfigured Saviour 
many ages afterwards — their bodies radiant with celestial 
glory — -floating in the atmosphere — visible and invisible 
at pleasure — and descending from, and ascending to, 
heaven with inconceivably more swiftness than the sun- 
beams, and with as much ease as swiftness. When we 
think of the weakness and decay of our own bodies, or 
look on the crumbling dust of departed friends, how con- 
soling and refreshing is the thought, how glorious is the 
revealed truth, and how unspeakably blessed does the 
work of redemption appear, which transforms the king of 
terrors into a messenger of love, and converts our bodily 
infirmities and death into the precursors of immortal youth 
and unfading beauty. 

But the intellectual powers of the saints in heaven expe- 
rience a proportionable change and elevation with the 
powers of their mortal bodies. Their understandings are 
enlarged in comprehension like those of the mighty angels 
who do his pleasure ; their wills are perfected in submis- 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 71 

sion like those of the cherubim who bow before the throne; 
their affections and passions and propensities are transformed 
and adapted to the objects of their happiness and to the 
illimitable range of their pleasures and employments. How 
different was the mental development of Bacon and New- 
ton when they were on their mother's knees, and when 
the one was making the circle of the sciences and the 
other measuring the distances of the heavenly bodies and 
explaining the laws of their motions ! How different were 
the intellectual powers of John Wesley when, in infancy, 
he was rescued from the devouring flames which enveloped 
the parental habitation, and when he had expounded the 
whole system of doctrinal and experimental theology and 
preached the gospel for half a century ! So great is the 
difference between the powers of the mightiest intellects 
on earth and those of the " spirits of the just made perfect. 11 
And in proportion to the vastness of their intellectual 
powers, will be the extent and degree of their attain- 
ments j which leads me to remark that — 

2. Theirs is a perfectio?i of knowledge — not of absolute 
attainment, but of immeasurable increase. Much of the 
happiness of heaven consists in contemplation, the supreme 
and infinite object of which is God Himself. It is the way, 
and will be one chief employment of life eternal, " to know 
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent/' 
In what a moment of time after their admission into 
heaven, do they attain more knowledge than they can here 
acquire during a long life of laborious application. Their 
knowledge is more immediate and intuitive than it was on 
earth. It is not by cautious and laboured inference from 
the works of God ; nor by narration from His revealed 
truth ; but it is a knowledge derived from the sight of God 



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Himself, and therefore as superior to the knowledge of nature 
or the knowledge of grace, as the lustre of the meridian sun 
is to the glimmering twilight of the morning. The " spirits 
of the just made perfect ,; see God as He is, in the un- 
clouded splendour of His infinite majesty and glory. 
Vision absorbs conjecture, reasoning and faith; and dis- 
pels imperfection, doubt and error. The perceptions and 
knowledge of even prophets and apostles on earth bear 
no comparison with the visions of the heavenly world. 
St. Paul, with all his mighty intellectual powers and celes- 
tial inspiration, says, " now we see through a glass darkly," 
- — our organs of vision are weak, the medium of observa- 
tion is obscure, the discovery of objects is at best defec- 
tive and imperfect ; but, " then we shall see face to face " 
— an object which the divine Moses himself could not 
behold on earth and live — a view which " the spirits of 
the just made perfect" alone can bear — the superseding of 
every means of representation by similitude or revelation 
— the direct, steady, unclouded, intuitive view of the pre- 
sence of God. " Now (continues the Apostle) I know in 
part " — with all the visions and gifts vouchsafed to me 
concerning the dispensations of the law and gospel, I 
know but in part the heights and depths and lengths and 
breadths of their riches and wisdom ; but when that which 
is perfect is come, and that which is in part shall be done 
away, " then shall I know even as also I am known — 
shall know for myself, and not by the testimony of ano- 
ther, even of an angel — shall know by intuition and not 
by reasoning or inference — shall know perfectly, and 
therefore not be liable to error or mistake — shall know 
beatifically, and therefore be as the angels of God. The 
Apostle describes the difference between the knowledge 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 73 

of earth and heaven, as the difference between the narrow, 
the confined, the imperfect notions of childhood and the 
more clear, comprehensive and rational views of full-grown 
men. " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I under- 
stood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I be- 
came a man, I put away childish things." As men of 
ripened and matured understandings rise above and relin- 
quish the thoughts and notions of infancy and childhood ; 
so, when we attain to the maturity of the " spirits of the 
just made perfect," our present views and gifts and know- 
ledge will appear as the thoughts and lispings of infancy. 
" For now we see through a glass darkly ; but then face 
to face ; now we know in part ; but then shall we know 
even as also we are known." 

The spirits of our friends made perfect in heaven pos- 
sess more extensive knowledge of the glorious perfections 
of God than they possessed or ever could have acquired 
on earth ; His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His 
justice, His holiness, His faithfulness, His unchangeable- 
ness, His boundless presence. What subjects of contem- 
plation, adoration, and praise ! " They behold His face 
in righteousness;" they " see Him as He is." Propor- 
tionably increased, and increasing, is their knowledge of the 
person and glories of their blessed Saviour, together with the 
character and offices of the Holy Ghost. Being " absent 
from the body, they are present with their Lord," where 
they behold the glory which He had with the Father before 
the foundation of the world, and the added glories of His 
mediatorial triumphs — the object of profoundest wonder 
and admiration to the whole heavenly world, the loftiest 
theme of its universal and ceaseless praises. They also 
survey and contemplate the works of God. And as they 



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pass from world to world and gaze upon the glories of 
God's unbounded empire, what a universe of wonders 
rises before the view, throughout the universal firmament 
of planets, suns and systems, throughout the endless 
varieties and beauties of the mineral and vegetable king- 
doms, throughout all orders of animated nature from the 
microscopic animalcule to the mightiest archangel. Those 
great and laborious astronomers, Sir William and John 
Herschel — the father and son — toiled out the nights of 
many years to make a telescopic survey of the starry 
heavens, from the northern and southern hemisphere of 
our own planet, and they have excited much admiration 
and applause for their observations and discoveries ; but 
how little could they see, and how much less could they 
know, of the works of God throughout the amplitudes of 
space. But celestial vision unmeasurably outreaches the 
limits of telescopic observation, and celestial wings incon- 
ceivably outfly the rapidity of the solar light, and celestial 
minds know, in a moment, more of the " heavens which 
declare the glory of God and the firmament which showeth 
His handy work," than human philosophy has ever con- 
ceived during a period of six thousand years. " The 
works of the Lord are great, honourable and glorious, 
sought of all them that have pleasure therein/' And how 
clear and comprehensive is the knowledge which the 
" spirits of the just made perfect possess of the provi- 
dential government of God — His dispensations towards the 
various orders of intelligent beings that people the universe 
— the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms, of nations 
and tribes in our own world — the mysteries of sin and re- 
demption — the methods of His revelation — the reasons of 
His dealings with families and individuals— in short, the 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 75 

whole range of His administration from the morning of the 
creation to the morning of the resurrection. All will be 
open to their view, not as a history, but as one vast field 
of vision ; they see the end from the beginning, and trace 
every link in the chain of Providence which connects 
every event of time with the throne of God and the deve- 
lopments of eternity. The clouds and darkness which 
now envelop the operations of Providence, will not ob- 
scure the horizon of the heavenly inhabitants ; they will 
see with the eye of undeceiving survey that " righteous- 
ness and judgment were the habitation of His throne 93 as 
much when He was visiting His people with poverty and 
sickness and death, as when He was bestowing upon them 
riches and health and life. They will see more ; they will 
see what now confounds reason and almost staggers faith, 
that the comparatively light and temporary afflictions of 
this life are transmuted into unspeakable and endless bless- 
ings to "the spirits of the just made perfect" — even into 
a " far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The 
disclosure of the reasons of the time and place and cir- 
cumstances of our birth, and of every disappointment and 
trial of our present state, will furnish new and affecting 
manifestations of wisdom and goodness in the administra- 
tion of the divine government, and call forth new songs of 
gratitude and praise to Him that " doeth all things well." 
The most inexplicable and apparently accidental events 
of time will then be seen to have been essential and care- 
fully adjusted parts of a great system of Almighty wisdom 
and goodness, and as perfectly adapted to the glorious 
end designed, as are the organs of sight to the objects of 
sight, or the law of gravitation to the motions of the hea- 
venly bodies. What wondrous vision ! What amazing 



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discoveries ! What " excellency of knowledge ! " And 
that knowledge ever expanding — ever accumulating without 
labour — ever approximating the infinite God, and yet ever 
at an infinite distance from the exhaustless resources of 
His attributes and perfections. The Lord God is their 
Sun ; they see light in His light and become luminous 
themselves in the beams of His glory. 

3. Theirs is, therefore, a perfection of holiness. Their 
vision of God is transforming. They see God as He is, 
they are like Him. Even on earth their sight of God by 
faith exerted a transforming influence. " Beholding as in 
a glass the glory of the Lord, they were changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of 
the Lord." They thus became the children of light ; — 
partaking of its pure qualities and diffusing its warming 
and fertilizing influence — their lives, like the countenance 
of Moses, reflecting the glory of the Lord. But the influ- 
ence of sight is more powerful than that of faith. The 
spirits of the just made perfect see God 3 and their perfect 
vision of Him makes their likeness to Him complete. 
" Every such spirit (says the great John Howe) is become 
as it were an orb of purest, most operative and lively light, 
an intellectual and self- actuating sun, full of fervour and 
motive power." The sun, indeed, with all his glory, is 
not free from spots ; but the spirits of the just made per- 
fect are " without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." 
Their natures are as pure as their robes of white, and 
transparent as the light itself. Every act, every word, 
every thought, every motion is holy ; and therefore the 
inhabitants are perfectly holy. They love God and each 
other with an intenseness of affection of which they were 
incapable on earth. Their thoughts never wander ; their 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 77 

affections never languish ; their love never declines. 
Blessed beings ! Glorious place ! Pride and envy are 
not known there ; nor selfishness nor resentment ; nor 
malice nor slander ; nor divisions nor discord. They are 
holy as God is holy ; and like Him they are one. One 
motive, one affection, one object actuates them all, as one 
holiness pervades them all. And this holiness — so entire 
and complete — is absolutely necessary to their happiness. 

Where there is sin there must be misery. Pride, hatred, 
envy, revenge, or covetousness, cannot exist without pro- 
ducing misery. Holiness is the perfection of order — the 
perfection of moral health and beauty, and therefore the 
essential element of happiness. Without holiness — a per- 
fect rectitude and healthfulness in all the powers and pas- 
sions of the soul — the external splendours of heaven itself 
could no more impart happiness, than a diadem can satisfy 
an aching head, or splendid apparel can give pleasure to 
a disordered body. But the injected beams of the divine 
glory transform the spirits of the just into the perfect 
beauty of holiness — impressing the perfection of order, 
harmony and purity upon all their intellectual and moral 
powers j whilst His wisdom, benevolence and power 
spread out before them the landscapes of boundless space, 
and the riches of His own eternity. 

4. Finally, the spirits of the just are made perfect in ex- 
alted and complete felicity. There is the absence of all evil, 
and the presence of all good — the one excluding suffering 
and sorrow, the other producing perfect pleasure and en- 
joyment. The bodies of the saints are spiritualized and 
glorified in heaven \ there are therefore no lusts of the 
flesh there. Their souls are perfectly holy ; they there- 
fore feel no lusts of the mind. Fallen angels and wicked 



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men are excluded from heaven ; and there are therefore 
no temptations of Satan and the world there. This three- 
fold source of guilt, danger and misery on earth has no 
existence in heaven. Neither are there any funerals in 
heaven ; no bereavements ; no mourners ; no paralysis ; 
no sick beds ; no sinking age or crying infancy ; not a 
sigh has ever been heard there ; nor a tear shed ; nor a 
sorrow felt ; the inhabitants weep no more, thirst no more ; 
the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne feeds them, 
and wipes away all tears from their eyes. They see God ; 
and "in His presence there is fulness of joy." They be- 
hold the exalted Jesus, and sit on the throne with Him. 
They mingle with the angels, and are equal to them. 
They sit down with the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, 
and join them in their hallelujahs to God and the Lamb. 

As their holy life in Christ Jesus on earth fitted them 
for their holier life with Him in heaven ; so their diversi- 
fied gifts and employments here may prepare them for 
corresponding employments there. The endless variety 
which we see in this world will doubtless have its counter- 
part in heaven. We see it in the kingdoms of nature, 
providence and grace; we observe it coexistent with time; 
and we believe it will exist throughout eternity, and per- 
petually add to the happiness of heaven. What variety 
of aspect do we see on the face of the heavens and the 
earth ! What variety in the vegetable and animal world ; 
in plants and flowers, and trees — in insects, fishes, birds 
and fourfooted beasts ; in the stature, features, tastes and 
genius of men ; in the gifts, style and offices of the in- 
spired writers, as well as in the thrones, dominions, prin- 
cipalities and powers of angels. " O Lord, how manifold 
are Thy works ! in wisdom hast Thou m,ade them alL" 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 79 

The different stations and orders in the world, the Church, 
and in heaven, suppose and require various talents and 
qualifications to perform their duties and fulfil their designs. 
This life is a training school for heaven. No small part 
of our present training consists in ministrations to each 
other. Angels themselves are "ministering spirits ; ^ and 
it is their happiness as well as duty to be so. The minis- 
ters and saints of God on earth imbibe the same feeling, 
and delight in the same work. What they feel, they wish 
others to feel ; what they know, they wish others to know. 
The love of Christ constrains them, and out of the feel- 
ings of their hearts their mouths speak. It is so in hea- 
ven in a degree as much higher as heaven is higher than 
the earth. To tell good news is delightful to the heart of 
friendship and love. In heaven friendship is consum- 
mated and love is all in all ; and the feeling which dic- 
tated the exclamation on earth, " Hear all ye, what the 
Lord hath done for my soul," will, in its vigour of hea- 
venly perfection, prompt the spirits of the just to an inter- 
course the most instructive and delightful. Their degrees 
of knowledge are as various as are their powers and the 
period of their residence in that exalted state. Though 
they are all stars, yet one star differeth from another star 
in glory ; and while some shine with the brilliancy of 
stars, others shine with the brightness of the sun. And 
as God does nothing in vain, their peculiar gifts and 
labours on earth will prepare them for peculiar stations 
and employments in heaven ; and their diversified know- 
ledge, and powers, and orders qualify and adapt them 
variously to unfold and illustrate the manifold wisdom of 
God " in bringing many sons to glory. 
What wonders may not Noah narrate of the antedilu- 



So The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



vian world, the deluge-judgment, and the rainbow-promise, 
in connection with subsequent dispensations of Providence 
on earth and their issues in heaven ! How pre-eminently 
qualified must Moses be, after thousands of years of hea- 
venly vision and contemplation, to explain the institutions 
and lead the worship, the first drafts and symbols of which 
he received and established at Horeb ! What conspicu- 
ous part may David take in that music of the heavenly 
world, the spirit and strains of which he cultivated so much 
on earth ! And with what a soul of light and glory may 
Isaiah then dilate upon the humiliations and triumphs of 
the virgin-born Immanuel, and the Apostle Paul on sal- 
vation by sacrifice, from the first offering of Abel to the 
achievements of Calvary ! And may we not suppose cor- 
responding and appropriate stations and employments for 
the edification and joy of the whole family of heaven, as- 
signed to such just men made perfect as a Eusebius and an 
Usher, a Burnett and a Mosheim, who employed themselves 
in time and edified believers on earth with histories of the 
providence of God in the establishment, preservation and 
triumphs of His Church ; a Boyle and a Ray, who greatly 
improved the science of natural and experimental philoso- 
phy, and sanctified it to religion ; a Luther and a Calvin, 
a Latimer and a Knox, whose souls were instinct with the 
life and power of the Church of Christ, and whose lives 
were consecrated to the revival of its purity ; a More and 
a Howe, whose meditative " spirits explored the heavenly 
regions before their entrance there; a Baxter and an Alleine, 
who sought the conversion of sinners ; a Wesley and a 
Fletcher, who aimed at the perfection of believers and the 
holiness of the world. And the same wisdom which 
assigns appropriate stations and employments to these 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 81 

and thousands of other " burning and shining lights " of 
the Church, will be at no loss in conferring correspond- 
ing and suitable rewards upon all the ' 6 spirits of the just, 
according to the deeds done in the body." The heavenly 
vessels may vary in their dimensions ; but they are all 
" vessels of honour," and they shall all be filled to their 
utmost capacity. They can each say, God is mine; for 
they are all " heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ" 
The same celestial fire burns in all their bosoms, and melts 
them into one " spirit with the Lord." All is love, and 
therefore all is delight. They not only behold a trans- 
figured Jesus, but they are transfigured with him— approx- 
imating him in perfection and happiness for ever and 
ever. New subjects of admiration are perpetually engag- 
ing their attention ; new streams of knowledge are per- 
petually flowing into their minds ; new themes of praise 
are perpetually employing their tongues. Their weight of 
glory is far more exceeding and eternal. 

Such, my brethren, are some of the thoughts suggested 
by the phrase of the text. Many practical remarks 
naturally flow from the foregoing observations. I will 
confine myself to one — a lesson of instruction to all. 

The subject of our present discourse suggests a lesson 
of instruction to all. The members of the church are re- 
minded how soon their present seats will be vacant, to 
work while they have time to work, and to be ready for 
their summons hence. Parents are reminded how soon 
they may be removed from their present domestic charge, 
and how important to leave to their offspring the legacy 
of religious instruction, a holy example, and fervent 
prayers. We are all reminded of our inevitable connec- 
tion with death and eternity^; and the topics of discourse 

F 



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demonstrate the inseparable connection between the ele- 
ments and principles of the Church militant and the 
Church triumphant — between pardon and regeneration 
and sanctification on earth, and glory in heaven. It is a 
maxim no less true than universal in Christendom, that 
"grace is glory begun, and glory is grace perfected." The 
glory in which the Apostle Paul shines with such immor- 
tal lustre, began in conversion — in repentance, faith and 
adoption. To " see God " in heaven, we must know Him 
on earth , to be " like Him " there, we must resemble 
Him here. This is the purpose of the Gospel — to restore 
us to the favour and renew us in the image of God. It is 
the purpose of Satan to defeat this object— to make us his 
prey, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not 
quenched. Which of these purposes have you been pur- 
suing ? Into which of them do you now enter ? " Choose 
ye, whom ye will serve." The awful option is in your own 
hands. The way, the truth, the life are before you — 
made accessible to you by " precious blood." Will you 
walk in that way ? Will you receive that truth ? Will you 
inherit that life ? " What will it profit you to gain the 
whole world, and lose your own soul ? Or what will you 
give in exchange for your soul ?" The "spirits of the just 
men made perfect" can alone exhibit the end of a 
Christian's "work of faith and labour of love." — Which of 
these ends do you prefer ? Defer not your choice till to- 
morrow. Decide now. Incur not the guilt of rejecting 
the Son of God ; but secure the blessedness of receiving 
Him. Be not deceived. The character of your life will 
determine your state in eternity. " For he that sowethto 
the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that 
soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlast- 



Christians on Earth and in Heaven. 



83 



ing." Then sow to the Spirit, and your harvest will be 
certain, glorious, and eternal. Be Christians on earth, and 
you will be " spirits of the just made perfect " in heaven. 
May this be the portion of us all, for Christ's sake ! Amen. 



CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 



The perfection attained by St. Paul ; the perfection he desired 
and sought; and the spirit and conduct he manifested in 
securing such. 

SERMON IV. 

By REV. J. BORLAND, of St. Johns. 

" Not as though 1 had already attained, either were already perfect: 
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am 
apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have 
apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which 
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I 
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus 
minded." Phil. iii. 12, 13, 14, 15. 

HE perfection of teaching is the judicious blend- 
ing of the exposition of principles with their 
illustration in consistent practice. Such teach- 
ing in divine truth we have by the sacred 
writers, and by none so than by the Apostle 
St. Paul. By him its principles, in their rela- 
tions and bearings, were clearly stated, while 
in his life their practical value and importance, were 
as clearly illustrated and enforced. 




Christian Perfection. 



85 



Nor was his consistency of conduct in any instance 
lacking. For apprehending the truth he held and taught 
to be of sovereign importance, he applied it to himself 
and others with the greatest earnestness and resolution. 
With an ardour that had no abatement, as it was scarcely 
possible to have any increase, he went forward in the in- 
culcation and practice of the truth as it is in Jesus, until 
by a martyr's death he seized a martyr's crown. 

In the two-fold aspect of an expositor and an example, 
he stands before us in the language of our text. In the 
truth he unfolds to others he is seen acting under it in the 
wonted ardour of his quenchless zeal ; and, therefore, 
holding up his conduct, and the inflexible purpose by 
which he was animated, he exhorts, saying, " Not as 
though I had already attained, either were already perfect : 
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which 
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I 
count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing 
I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reach- 
ing forth unto those things which are before, I press to- 
ward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, 
be thus minded. " 

In these words we have a state of perfection avowed \ 
a state of perfection desired ; and then the statement of 
the spirit and conduct of the Apostle in seeking that per- 
fection. We will consider these subjects in the order 
thus given. 

I. The Apostle avows a perfection which he and 

OTHERS POSSESSED. WHAT IS THAT PERFECTION ? His 

words are, " Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect be 
thus minded." With not a few Christians the employment 



86 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



of the word perfect, or perfection, when applied to cha- 
racter, or spiritual attainment, is a fearful abuse of language, 
and an assumption of Christian standing of serious error, 
if not of perilous blasphemy. While their efforts to set 
aside the application of these terms by the Holy Spirit, to 
servants of God in different periods and places, and that 
in their only grammatical and legitimate bearing, are 
amusing, when not exciting more serious emotions. 

Of Job God did not hesitate to say that he was " a per- 
fect and an upright man, one that feareth God and eschew- 
eth evil." (Job i. 8, and ii. 3.) Then, again, the Spirit of 
God says : " Mark the perfect man, and behold the up- 
right : for the end of that man is peace." (Ps. xxxvii. 37.) 
And, not unnecessarily to multiply Scripture on the sub- 
ject, let it suffice to remind the reader that our Lord 
commands that we should be " perfect, even as your 
Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Math. v. 48); 
while St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: " And this 
also we wish, even your perfection." While in the He- 
brews he presses the exhortation, " Let us go on unto per- 
fection." 

It is important that our creed be accompanied with y 
and not contradictory of the Holy Scriptures. 

Yet it may be asked, " does not the Apostle contradict 
himself by saying, ' not as though I had already attained, 
either were already perfect. 7 " And the answer is, in ap- 
pearance he does, but not in reality. Let it be our busi- 
ness, therefore, to discover his consistency with himself, 
and with the doctrines of the gospel generally. 

1. The Apostle, as are all truly Christia?is, was a per- 
fectly justified person before God. 

He could say without any hesitancy, or in words of doubt- 



Christian Perfection. 



ful meaning : " Therefore being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. v. 1.) 
And, " There is therefore now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but 
after the Spirit." (Rom. viii. 1.) The work of justifica- 
tion in his case was complete, full and perfect. This 
both as to the fact, and its evidence upon his own 
mind. Nor is it possible to over-estimate the value and 
importance of this attainment : as thus is the soul saved 
from the tormenting anxiety — suitably expressed by Wes- 
ley, when he says : 

6 ' Who can resolve the doubt 
That tears my anxious breast ; 
Shall I be with the damned cast out, 
Or numbered with the blest ? " 

To numbers the solution of this question appears without 
any importance, as they never grasp the seriousness of the 
subject to which it refers. Without any just concern for 
the frown of God against impenitent transgressors, or of 
the responsibilities which their relations to God involve, 
they are in no condition to place any value upon a 
knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins; 
yet such alters not the nature of the fact to those who 
realize it : and a perfect assurance of it will ever be ac- 
knowledged as a blessing of inestimable value. 

2. The Apostle was in a perfectly regenerated state. 

He knew — he felt fully, perfectly, assured that he 
was " a new creature in Christ Jesus ; " that he had 
been " brought from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God." That he had received " power 
to become " a " son of God." That he had been " born, 



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not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God." That "the law of the spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus " had made " him free from the law of sin 
and death." And that now his experience was a change 
from — yet in pleasing contrast with — what it was when 
he said, " but I am carnal, sold under sin ; " and, " For 
the good that I would, I do not : but the evil which I 
would not, that I do." Therefore, in mournful bitterness 
he exclaimed : " O wretched man that I am ! Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ? " 

3. The Apostle was the subject of a perfect consecratio?i to 
God. 

Dead to sin, he was alive to God. Therefore, with per- 
fect sincerity and confidence he could say : " For I through 
the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 
I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not 
I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now live 
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. ii. 19, 20.) 
That such a profession was no empty boast we have only 
to look at his life to be perfectly assured. 

When defending his apostolic character to the Corin- 
thian Church, he said : " Are they," the false teachers who 
laboured to subvert the faith of the Church, " ministers 
of Christ ? (I speak as a fool) I am more : in labours 
more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more 
frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received 
I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, 
once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night 
and a day I have been in the deep ; in journeyings often, 
in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine 
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the 



Christian Perfection. 



8 9 



city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfull- 
ness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings 
often, in cold and nakedness." And again, " Most gladly, 
therefore, I will rather glory in my infirmities, that the 
power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take 
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in 
persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake." 

Nor was he moved from his stedfastness to Christ by 
- such an experience ; for subsequently, when going up to 
Jerusalem, he addressed the elders of the Church in Ephe- 
sus, saying : " And now, behold, I go bound in spirit 
unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall 
befall me there ; save that the Holy Ghost witness- 
ed in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide 
me, but none of these things move me, neither 
count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish 
my course with joy, and the ministry which I have re- 
ceived of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace 
of God." And to others, who with weeping solicitude for 
his safety, sought to turn him aside from his purpose, 
he said: "What mean ye to weep and to break mine 
heart ? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to 
die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." To 
Christ the Master, St. Paul was fully consecrated 3 there- 
fore, with unquestionable sincerity, he could exhort, " Let 
us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded." 
But further we would observe : 

4. St. Paul, as have all real Christians, had a perfect 
title to heaven. 

As a believer he was made a son of God. As a child 
of God he was " an heir of God, and a joint heir with 



90 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

Jesus Christ" And because "the Spirit itself" bore 
" witness with " his " spirit that he was a child of God " 
(see Rom. viii. 15, 16, 17, and Gal. iv. 5, 6, 7), hence 
he could say : " We know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a 
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens/ ' 
And that were he " absent from the -body/' he would " be 
present with the Lord/ 7 That while for him " to live" 
was " Christ," "to die" would be "gain." 

Still he says : " Not as though I had already attained 
or were already perfect." We may, therefore, consider, 

II. In what sense St. Paul was not already per- 
fect, AND THE PERFECTION TO WHICH HE ASPIRED. 

i. He would " win Christ" and be found in hint, hav- 
ing the righteousness which is of God by faith through 
Christ. 

It is one of the properties of divine grace that the 
more it is possessed the more we become conscious of 
our poverty, and of our great need of larger measures of 
gospel blessings. Hence it is often found that while those 
act who apparently believe they have enough of such bless- 
ings, or at least can rest contented with the little they 
possess, those who are largely endowed speak as though 
what they had was as nothing, whilst they are restlessly 
anxious to get more. These are they that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness — who, highly enjoying what 
they now have, know well that that which they so much 
prize is at their acceptance, or within their reach, hence, 
they resolutely press for them. 

Further, just in such proportion as these get nearer 
and nearer to God, and can rejoice in fullest hope 
of a blissful immortality, so are they most concerned 



Christian Perfection. 



9 1 



to be possessed of all the required meetness for an en- 
trance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. St. Paul had renounced his own righteousness 
of Jewish ceremonial obedience and consistency, and 
"through the faith of Christ/' he stood "in" Christ and 
before God accepted ; yet, he so measured this righteous- 
ness of God by faith ; and saw it so high, so deep, so 
broad, and so full, that he speaks as though he had none 
of it, or, if any, but a comparatively small portion of it. 
The more he was in Christ, the more of this righteousness 
he had ; and the more of this righteousness he had, the 
more he would win Christ. 

2. He would know Christ more perfectly. u That I may 
know Him" 

What ! it may be asked, did not Paul know Christ ? 
Was it not by Christ that he was so marvellously and 
mightily convicted of his sins and sinfulness when on his 
way to Damascus ? Was it not by the faith of Christ that 
his heavy burden of guilt and sorrow was removed through 
the instrumentality of Annanias? Did not Paul know 
Christ, when as constituting him a true Apostle, he re- 
vealed himself so to him as to justify Paul in saying : 
" Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus Christ 
our Lord?" Did not Paul know Christ, his Lord, by the 
revelations He had made to his faith, and by the power 
. He had exerted on his heart ? If then by these and many 
other ways • and if by such measures of grace and bless- 
ing he attested His existence and character, how could 
Paul regard as a constituent element of the perfection for 
which he panted, a knowledge of Christ ? " That I might 
know Him," he says. 

This, as the former particular, is to be explained on the 



92 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

fact, that the more we know, the less we seem to know. 
He knew Christ, but the knowledge acquired he regarded 
as nothing in comparison with what he might know. He 
saw there were depths and heights in the knowledge of 
Christ, compared with which his own attainments were as 
nothing. Hence in this fuller measure he would know 
Christ. 

3. He would know, also, the power of His ( Chrisfs ) 
resurrection. 

In the resurrection of our Lord there was a manifesta- 
tion of power, which was at once a crowning evidence of 
His divine sonship and consequent deity ; and with it of 
the perfect completeness and divine acceptance of the 
work of redemption as wrought out upon the cross. But 
with this there was also an exercise of power that triumphed 
over principalities and powers of the enemies of God and 
man. That was an earnest of the perfect and perpetual 
subjugation of all Christ's enemies whenever, for that end, 
he shall choose to assert the right and to exercise the ne- 
cessary authority. 

In all this was a glorious manifestation of the power of 
God in Christ — and that in man's behalf — which the 
Apostle in some commensurate degree wished to have 
applied to himself. That having " been planted together 
in the likeness of His death, he should be also in the like- 
ness ( the full likeness) of His resurrection." Of this he 
had a partial, and now he panted for a fuller knowledge 
and experience. 

4. He would know also u the fellowship of His sufferings" 
being made conformable to his death. 

It is observable that the Apostle heeds not so much the 
happiness and peace which the grace of Christ imparts, as 



Christian Perfection. 



93 



the holiness — the conformity of his nature to that of the 
Saviour — which it creates. He heeded not suffering if it 
but resulted in his greater fellowship with his Lord. 

Fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, is fellowship 
with Christ in the most trying, yet in the most glorious 
displays of His sanctified manhood to the will of His 
heavenly Father. This was especially so in His death. 
When, having power to lay down His life (for no man 
could take it from Him), and power to take it up again, 
He nevertheless abandoned himself to the claims of in- 
sulted justice in man's behalf, and over an infuriated 
throng of human beings He poured out an intercessory 
supplication for mercy, while He calmly and patiently sank 
into the arms of death. Such an exhibition of character 
— bright in all the rays of divinest excellence, and that 
under certain circumstances the most trying and unique 
that the universe of intelligent beings ever witnessed, or 
ever will, or can, witness — filled the mind of the Apostle 
with an admiration so full and so commanding, that he 
thirsted for a fellowship with his Saviour therein in a 
measure he had not yet realized. 

5. He would " attain unto the resurrection of the dead." 
There was, he knew, a resurrection for all men. For the 
evil as well as for the good ; for the just as for the unjust. 
But he as well knew that there was the resurrection, which 
as affecting the people of God, was unto life eternal. In 
the attainment of this object no risk was to be run. A 
possibility of failure was sufficient to stimulate him to con- 
stant and earnest effort for the scripturally required cha- 
racter for that transcendently important object. 

6. Further ; he would " apprehend that for which also he 
was apprehended of Christ Jesus" We may suppose that 



94 



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as the lapidary may, on the examination of a precious 
stone, at once conclude upon what a polish it is capable 
of receiving, and to what position of beauty and use- 
fulness it might be raised and applied; so Christ 
may be supposed to form an estimate of the finish and 
excellence to which a soul is susceptible when fully sub- 
jected to the purifying and glorifying influences of the 
Holy Spirit. Paul, as though conscious his Lord had 
fully apprehended the position of beauty and usefulness 
of which he was susceptible, and to which, therefore, He 
would raise him, made it his actuating wish and prayer, 
that he might apprehend — in other words, might fully rise 
to the point to which, in his soul's apprehension, he was 
by Him designed. 

How important that each one of us should fully realize 
this idea in its proper significancy. That it is not enough 
that we should so serve God as to get to heaven, but that we 
should fully meet our Lord's apprehension of the service 
we may render, and the position of glory and dignity to 
which we are capable of being raised. How inspiring is 
such a motive ; and how worthily consistent is its mani- 
festation in the intelligent and devout disciple of the Lord 
our Saviour. 

Again, if Paul says : " Brethren, I count not myself to 
have apprehended/' he had not, he felt assured, yet 
risen to the status of Christian excellence and con- 
formity for which he was " apprehended of Christ 
Jesus/' but he was resolved that nothing should be 
wanting in order to accomplish this. Hence, he adds : 
"But this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things 
which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize 



Christian Perfection. 



95 



of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Here we 
have — 

III. The spirit and conduct of the Apostle in 

REACHING THE PERFECTION HE DESCRIBES. 

1. His spirit is that of earnest desire. It is to be feared 
that many professing Christians seek to retain what they 
now possess rather than rise to the standard of the tho- 
roughly matured and perfected Christian to which the 
provisions and promises of the Gospel point them. As a 
consequence, their movements exhibit no more of progress 
than the door that swings on its hinges. But not so the 
Apostle. Onwards was his desire, and onwards were his 
action and progress. 

2. His spirit was that of courageous and irrepressible 
determination. Possibly, there might be fears within, as 
certainly there were foes without ; yet, having mastered 
himself, he was resolved that nothing should hold him 
back from "the mark" for the courted "prize/' And 
his conduct was in perfect and constant accord with this. 

3. For he says ; " This one thing I do." Not this one 
thing 1 purpose doing, but this one thing I now do. He 
was a man of one work, in the sense that whatever he 
did, he had but one motive, one spirit, and one end, for 
which he did all things ; hence, though there were many 
things which claimed and had his attention and efforts, 
yet he made his doing such, subservient to, and promo- 
tive of, one great end, and that was the attainment of 
this glorious Gospel perfection. Again he says : 

4. " Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching 
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." 



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We may not suppose that when the Apostle says, " for- 
getting those things which are behind, " he designed we 
should understand his words in their full and absolute 
sense. No, for there were things he would never forget 
He would never forget the " the rock whence he was 
hewn," nor " the hole of the pit whence he was digged." 
When it was proper to do so, he hesitated not to tell what 
he was " in the flesh," and what because of such had been 
done for him. " Circumcised/' he was, " the eighth day, 
of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an He- 
brew of the Hebrews ; as touching the law, a Pharisee ; 
concerning (pharisaic) zeal, persecuting the church ; touch- 
ing the righteousness which is by the law, blameless." But 
he so far forgot these things as that they were entirely left 
out of the inventory of his spiritual property and appli- 
ances, as that he made no account of them. They were 
as forgotten, rejected things, in his constant pursuit of the 
perfected Christian character. Another thing which the 
Apostle would never forget, but when necessary to en- 
courage a doubting disciple, or to exalt his blessed Lord, 
he would hold up before the church and the world ; — this 
was his conduct and mercies when he madly kicked 
against the pricks in persecuting the Lord in His dis- 
ciples. 

To this he refers in the following strain to Timothy : 
" And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled 
me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the 
ministry, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, 
and injurious : but I obtained mercy, because I did it 
ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was 
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Chris t 
Jesus/— i Tim. i., 12, 13, 14. 



Christian Perfection. 



97 



He so far forgot the things which were behind as that 
he dwelt not so much upon them as upon the things be- 
fore him and attainable, and now to be secured. 

He reached forth, and pressed towards the mark ; 
showing that obstructions and difficulties were in his way. 
But as the Lord had said : " Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate," and, " Labour for that meat which endureth unto 
everlasting life," and as he himself had said unto others, 
" Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," 
so, consistent with himself and with his Saviour, he strove, 
he reached, and pressed through or over all obstruc- 
tions and difficulties, so that he might come up to the 
mark for the prize of his high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. 

The mark which the Apostle ever kept before him is 
comprehended in the particulars enumerated, and to which 
we have given attention. The securing of the mark he 
knew was the certainty of obtaining the prize — eternal 
life. And as the prize was eminently worthy of the effort, 
and all that could be endured in obtaining it, so was it 
too glorious an object to hazard by negligence or remiss- 
ness, of which he might be capable, or into which he 
could be drawn. Therefore, he would so labour, con- 
tend, reach forth and press towards, as that the mark 
should be secured, and with it the glorious prize. 

"Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus 
minded." What a follower of Christ Jesus was the Apos- 
tle : and how safely may all true Christians follow him ! 
The perfectness of which St. Paul made profession was 
not exclusively Apostolic ; it was Christian in the widest 
sense. Nor can the Christian profession be consistently 
made without a participation in it to some extent, at least. 

G 



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All should be perfectly satisfied of being justified — regene- 
rated, and consecrated to God. These stand at the 
very entrance of the Christian's life ; the entrance of the 
Christian way to heaven. Being, then, assured of our 
participation in this grace, let us go on unto the attain- 
ment of all the mind which was also in Christ Jesus, that 
eventually we may stand before God perfect and entire, 
lacking nothing. 



ANGELS STUDYING REDEMPTION. 



SERMON V. 

By REV. WM. STEPHENSON, Hamilton. 

" Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ 
which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the suffer- 
ings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was 
revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the 
things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached 
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ; 
which things the angels desire to look into." — I. Peter, i. n, 12. 

F the highest orders of created intelligence can 
indulge in the contemplation of one subject 
more profound and worthy that contemplation 
than another, such subject, beyond all debate, 
is the glorious economy of human redemption. 
Whether we view that economy in the source 
of its origin, in the vastness of its bearings, or 
in the incomparable grandeur of its results, we see in it 
sufficient to excite and to justify whatever is reverential 
and adoring on the part of angels and of men. When 
on the one hand, we remember that in the vindication 
of those principles involved in the redemption of man 
there must of necessity be sacrifice, privation, ignominy 




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and death ; and when on the other, we ponder the illus- 
trious being who deigned to embark in the interests of 
universal man, who deigned to encounter that turbulent 
current of maddest opposition, who deigned to repel, and 
rebut, and withstand that fierce and fiendish outrage which 
attended His every step, and strained His immaculate 
soul with unutterable sorrow. When, I say, we view the 
redemption of man as the expression of an impulse of in- 
finite love — an impulse that must be expressed though at 
such a stupendous outlay, we cannot but regard it as in 
every way worthy of the most earnest research of the 
highest as well as lowest grades of created intelligences. 
We wonder not that a scheme so replete with interest 
because so fraught with love, should enlist the attention of 
angels. We wonder not that a plan so wise, so glorious, 
so beneficent, so expressive of " Eternal power and God- 
head/' should excite angelic thought, awake angelic won- 
der, and claim angelic praise. We wonder not that in 
view of this matchless scheme of emancipation they 
should strike their harps to notes of deepest harmony, 
and, " as the voice of many waters and of great thunder- 
ing," swell the loud acclaim — " Worthy is the Lamb that 
was slain.' ' 

On Divine veracity we are informed that this ineffably 
glorious project of pardon and immortality angels sedu- 
lously investigate. With that sympathy which is always 
found in company with goodness, they " desire to look 
into it." Theirs is not an idle speculation — by no means 
a vain curiosity. " Which things the angels desire to look 
into." In unfolding our theme we shall notice : 

I. The Subjects of this Intense Desire — " Angels." 
" Which things the angels desire to look into." The 



Angels Studying Redemption. 101 



angels of God have ever been regarded as the brightest, 
purest, highest and most intelligent creations of Infinite 
wisdom and power. We have been wont, with good 
Bishop Hopkins, to regard the angels as " glorious spirits, 
the top and cream of creation/' As touching their nature, 
we regard that as spirit ; as touching their office, we re- 
gard that as angel — angel or messenger — their nature 
spirit, their office angel. We hold that in their nature, in 
their essence, they are spirit. Why should it be thought 
incredible that there should be spiritual as well as material 
essences ? Dr. Watts somewhere asks : " Why may there 
not be spiritual and incorporeal substances, as well as 
material and corporeal ? " While Locke, the unrivalled 
logician, describes spiritual substances as " that nameless 
something in which certain qualities inhere." The angels 
of God, we think, may be represented as pure spiritual 
substances, and that they have a positive existence is 
clearly demonstrable. Some have supposed that the angels 
are possessed of a body — " a spiritual body " — such as the 
righteous are to receive at the resurrection when they are 
to be " equal to the angels." Whether there is in the uni- 
verse any being purely detached from some sort of corpo- 
riety, and exclusively spiritual, save indeed the Great 
Supreme, is a question not easily answered, nor is its 
solution at all essential to our present purpose and enquiry. 
" God is a Spirit," nor can we conceive of any portion or 
modification of matter of whatever type as entering into 
His essence without being betrayed into a gross contra- 
diction and absurdity. In regard to every other class of 
beings it is conjectured by many that the thinking princi- 
ple is associated with some corporeal vehicle through 
which it derives its perceptions and by which it operates. 



102 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

But whether angelic beings possess any bodily organiza- 
tion — whether they have any corporeal enshrinement how 
subtle and refined soever, is a question upon which the 
Scriptures are entirely silent. As already stated, we are 
inclined to view them as pure spiritual substances capable 
of assuming the human, or other modes of manifestation 
for the accomplishment of God's unsearchable purposes. 
Hence you will remember that they appeared under vari- 
ous forms, and in various figures during the Old Testa- 
ment economy. Of this, however, we may surely rest 
satisfied — that the angels are the purest, the most refined, 
and the most spiritual beings in the universe, God himself 
apart. And after the most laboured, elaborate and finished 
argument in favour of angelic corporiety, the proudest 
theologian fails to demonstrate what really is the vestiture 
of that bright and burning spirituality which must ever 
remain unencumbered with a body like ours, and which is 
ever strong to do the will of God. 

Their numbers and their names may also be matters of 
debate : but, " I beheld," says Daniel, " till thrones were 
cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose gar- 
ment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like 
pure wool : His throne was like the fiery flame, and His 
wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and 
came forth from before Him : thousand thousands minis- 
tered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand 
stood before Him." And, again, the lonely exile of Pat- 
mos exclaims : "I heard the voice of many angels round 
about the throne, and the number of them was ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." 
But whatever may be the number of what St. Paul desig- 
nates " an innumerable company of angels," we infer from 



Angels Studying Redemption. 103 



the inspired record that their position is the highest, the 
most ennobled and dignified that created beings could 
possibly occupy. Nor are their titles unmeaning, ambi- 
guous, or equivocal. Correspondent with the loftiness of 
their position are their divinely selected designations. 
They pass before us in all the sublime insignia of station 
— the resplendent robe, the mantle woven of light, the 
garment whose woof and texture are immortality. We 
speak of them as " the sons of God," as "angels," as "arch- 
angels," as " dominions, principalities and powers," as the 
" morning stars," and as " living creatures full of eyes 
round about." Each term will be found expressive 
of relationship, or of official capacity, or of intel- 
lectual superiority, or of vitality of being. They excel in 
strength, they surpass in wisdom, and, in a limited sense, 
they inhabit eternity. Their habitation is heaven, the 
" throne of God and of the Lamb is in it ; " and in the 
radiancy of its light, and in the plenitude of its joy, and 
in the glory of its might, they " worship God." The 
blight and the mildew of corruption never marred their 
beauty, never stained their vestments, never impaired their 
energy. In the brightness of original perfection, they 
serve their Maker, and cast their crowns at His feet. 
Nor is their superiority seen only in their sinlessness and 
station. They are possessed of high intellectual powers. 
Their knowledge is above and beyond that of any created 
being. They are represented to us as being all sense, all 
intellect, all consciousness — as " having eyes within and 
without," and, as comprehending with the clearness of 
knowledge the wisdom and the work of God. In sublime 
keeping with all this has ever been the place of their abode. 
The angels have ever dwelt in a world where truth reigns 



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without error, where majesty is common character, and 
where knowledge attains its perfection — in a world where 
all mysteries are solved, where all pain is banished, where 
all darkness is dispelled. In a world where the nature 
and propriety of both the means and the ends of the 
Divine administration are most vividly unfolded. There, 
day without night, since they emerged to being, since they 
awoke to thought, they have been employed in studying, 
admiring and adoring the wonders and the works of God. 
They faint not, neither are they weary. There is no 
searching of their understanding. In every object of 
study they find the elements of bliss, and in every engage- 
ment an increase of strength. Being pure spirits, un- 
straightened, unencumbered, unclogged by whatever is 
material, being possessed of intellects that were never 
shattered, never weakened, never bedimmed, and being 
exempted from all liability to whatsoever is frail and dying, 
without spot of defilement or shadow of imperfection, who 
shall measure the stature of their intellectual strength, or 
tell the range of their moral power ? 

But whatever may be the position of angels, whatever 
their grasp of thought, whatever their power of analysis 
and penetration ; however extended their field of vision, 
however far-seeing their faculty of observation, how- 
soever abundant their stores of knowledge, and diver- 
sified their information, there is one mystery that staggers 
and confounds them. Equal to the solution of this mys- 
tery they have never been — it is their wonder of wonders, 
their problem of problems — " God manifest in the flesh." 
At the shrine of this wonder they bow, at the base of this 
Alpine mystery they confess the bound, the limit, and the 
horizon. 



Angels Studying Redemption. 



In the fact that Christ was God, they saw no wonder, 
nothing novel, nothing surprising — that was what always 
had been, what always must be, what is — " the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever/' But in that Christ was 
man, they saw the new, the unexpected, the marvellous — 
they saw derangement, displacement and humiliation — 
they saw finiteness assumed, suffering courted, death em- 
braced — "which things the angels desire to look into." 
We notice then : — 

II. The Objects of Angelic Desire ; or, the things 
Angels Desire to look into. 

And here we may observe that these " things " are ex- 
pressive of all that can, in the highest degree, claim their 
thought, roll their song, swell their transport, or elicit their 
adoration. They are " things ' ; which rose through the 
mist and the twilight before the enraptured vision of the 
earliest prophets, and brightened into a lambent glory 
before the eyes of the latest. They are " things " which 
fanned the flame of the Jewish altar, swept the line of type 
and prophesy, rolled on the roll of ages, and resounded 
as the tones of jubilee from generation to generation. 
They are " things " which have gilded the centuries of 
time, fringed the aspects of human destiny, and heaved 
their tide of influence over all the realms of a branded 
world. They are "things " which, more than any other, 
affect heaven, and earth, and hell. The greatest, the most 
stupendous "things" that ever arrested the attention of 
angels, men, or devils. The things into which the angels 
desire to look, embrace all that may be implied in, or 
connected with, "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory 
that should follow. " Just for a moment let us notice the 
first branch of angelic investigation as here presented— 



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" The sufferings of Christ." The angels of God have 
ever taken a deep and delighted interest in the evolu- 
tion of the Divine counsels. But, if we may conceive 
that in the history of those beings there could arrive 
one moment of deeper interest than another or that 
they could be roused to a pitchj of higher excitement 
in view of one marvel more than another, we may well 
conclude such moment and such marvel to embrace " the 
hour and power of the atonement." The imagination 
needs to be spurred to no violence of effort to depict an 
unwonted solicitude in the bearing of angels at that point 
in their history (if indeed we may suppose them to have 
been spectators of the scene), when the Synod of heaven 
sat, when the Conference of the skies deliberated on the 
plan of human recovery. What must have been their 
attitude, when on the stupendous problem they concen- 
trated their powers of calculation, and, foiled and wildered, 
they had recourse to a fixed and solemn silence ? What 
must have been their emotion when the startling question, 
" Who is found worthy to open the book ?" rang through 
all their ranks, and orders, and hierarchies; and when 
neither " principality " nor " power " was found sufficient 
to "unloose the seals thereof?" And O ! who shall tell 
their wordless amaze, when they saw the " Prince of Peace" 
rise from the depths of inaccessible light, stand on the 
ramparts of His throne, " lay aside His glory," and hear 
His exclamation — " Lo, I come ! In the volume of the 
book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will O God ! " 
They looked, and as they looked they wondered, and as 
they wondered they adored, and as they adored they sang 
— " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and 
good will to man." We are not, however, to suppose that 



Angels Studying Redemption. 



107 



the solicitude hitherto evinced by those holy beings was 
at all abated in its intensity, when the Son of God, " who 
took not on Him their nature," was " found in fashion as 
a man," but rather as heightening and refining, and becom- 
ing even more intense and overpowering as the various 
phases of His eventful life developed. Having announced 
His incarnation as the most astounding event in their 
history, they followed Him marking every pang, witnessing 
every struggle, rejoicing in every triumph. They saw Him 
enter the wilderness where Satan singled Him out, and 
dared Him to battle, and they saw Him quit that scene of 
conflict in all the grandeur of glorious conquest. They 
saw Him in Olivet, they saw Him on Calvary. They saw 
His heart transfixed with wounds, they saw it well over 
with love and grief — 

" And had their eyes have known a tear, 
They must have wept and shed it there." 

But we desire to dwell more immediately upon the suf- 
ferings of Christ as portrayed to us in the Scriptures, and 
as claiming the attention of angels. " The sufferings of 
Christ ! " The very terms are expressive of the weight, 
the stress, the emphasis, the peculiarity of those " suffer- 
ings." In their depth, their force, their extent, those 
" sufferings " are without a model Every other idea of 
suffering is widely different and far removed. " He suf- 
fered the just for the unjust." In that He was God, we 
see a peculiarity in, but no abatement of, the sufferings of 
Christ. While the Divinity did not, could not suffer, the 
humanity was none the less liable — the suffering thereof 
none the less severe. The awful grandeur of this subject 
is too often allowed to mar its interest, to abate its tender- 



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ness, to affect its pathos, and to restrain the roll of human 
sympathy. We are too apt to suppose that because of the 
interblending of the Divine with the human in the per- 
son of Christ, that the Divinity must have interposed to 
diminish the acuteness of those unutterable pangs which 
all but crushed His stainless spirit. Let us rather suppose 
that the Divinity made it possible for Him to endure 
more severe and complicated forms of misery — to sustain 
a more overwhelming pressure of anguish — yea, that it 
did actually dilate and enlarge His capacity of suffering, 
then shall we realize that, as wave after wave heaves, and 
breaks on His generous soul, " never was sorrow like unto 
His sorrow." If we seek to set forth " the sufferings of 
Christ,'' we lay under immediate requisition all the exter- 
nal symbols of distress — the scourge, the buffetings, the 
crown of thorns, and the cross— and it is thus by intro- 
ducing the instruments of bodily torture that we work up 
our picture of the " suffering Son of God." And yet, 
there is more in the simple expression " the sufferings of 
Christ," — than the crayon ever produced, though the all 
but inspired genius of a Raphael, or a Reynolds should 
guide its strokes. The tremendous workings of His spirit, 
the agony of His soul, are not indexed by any material 
emblems of anguish, while they dislocate the energies of 
endurance, and baffle description. That He should be 
simply a " Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief," 
this is nothing ; that He should exclaim " the foxes have 
holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of 
Man hath not where to lay His head," this is nothing ; that 
He should be branded as a winebibber, a gluttonous man, 
and as one having a devil, this is nothing ; that Judas 
should be treacherous, and Peter cowardly, and His dis- 



Angels Studying Redemption. 109 



ciples heartless in His extremity, this is nothing ; that He 
should be arrested, and arraigned, and crucified — this is 
nothing — but that Eternal Justice should "make His soul 
an offering for sin/' — there lies the core of the marvellous, 
and there the gist of His agony. Let us linger for a mo- 
ment in Gethsemane — (it was only a spot " so called," but 
the dews of Christ's sacred sorrow fell there, and there is 
no garden like it now,) here pale, trembling, breathless, 
see the " Son of Man." No earthly or celestial ministrant 
relieves this solitude, " and, being in an agony, His sweat 
becomes as it were great drops of blood." The severity of 
His sufferings, together with the indescribable anguish 
and horror of the sufferer are strangely delineated. " His 
Soul is exceedingly sorrowful " — " He is heard in that He 
fears " — He offers prayer and supplication with strong 
cries and tears," while the burden of His pleading is — 
" Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me." "He 
treads the winepress alone; of the people there is none 
with Him " — 

" His feeble flesh abhors to bear, 
The wrath of an Almighty God. " 

He sees the sword brandished on high, it flashes in a mo- 
mentary poise, it is plunged into His soul. The blistering 
rain of an incensed heaven falls in molten drops upon His 
devoted head. It is here that He beholds in dread array 
the fearful preparations for His death. It is over this place 
that the mystic events of Calvary cast their ghastly sha- 
dows. It is here that the treachery that had huckstered 
Him away and trafficked in His blood, fixes its shaft in His 
heart. Experience and anticipation alike distress Him. 
He longs, and yet He trembles, to encounter the worst, 



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" He has a baptism to be baptized with, and how is He 
straightened till that be accomplished ? " But let us hasten 
to Calvary, and contemplate the events which crowd the 
last crimson hour— 

6 ' Behold the Saviour of mankind, 
Nailed to the shameful tree," — 

and declare, if you can, the utter loneliness of His desola- 
tion. The secret of His anguish assumes no outward 
show, drapes itself for no external display, utters no com- 
manding expression — He hangs in unvoiced agony. Tell 
me not of the " gall and the vinegar/' of the " thorn and 
the spike," of the " spitting and the spear." These are but 
bubbles on the surface of an unexplored and fathom- 
less ocean of woe, whose waves roll on in mystic 
fury, and boil and burst upon the hidden soul. Or, to 
change the figure, all that was outward, all that man did or 
could effect, were but as sparks to the fire that consumed, 
mere scintillations playing round the bosomed furnace of 
His anguish. " He suffered for sin," — this was the agony of 
His soul, it was the soul of His agony. " He suffered for 
sin!" And, oh, sirs ! who shall take the gauge and the 
dimensions of His pain? — a pain that made creation 
pause, and fixed the universe in rivetted amaze — a pain 
from which the sun shrank abashed, and the day reined 
his chariot into darkness — a pain that burst the rocks with 
alarm, and shook" the globe with affright — a pain that 
seemed to heave hill and dale in sympathetic vibration 
with quivering of His lips. The angels beheld Him when, 
in the extreme of nature and of agony, He bowed His 
blessed head. They saw Him die. They watched Him 
enter the stronghold; they witnessed His struggle with 



Angels Studying Redemption. 



in 



death, in Death's own realm. They might have supposed 
that this " king of darkest shade " would have yielded to 
the Lord of Life, or that the Champion of human deliver- 
ance would have hurled some weapon of omnipotence 
from the distance to crush and to destroy him. But no, 
He bowed beneath his power. He suffered Himself to 
be bound. He died, and in this was angelic wonder 
heightened to amazement. If we may suppose that what, 
to human observation were the pass and the bound, ob- 
truded no barrier in the way of angelic discernment, then 
may we further suppose that their suspense ended not in 
that they saw Him die, in that they saw Him give up the 
ghost. Who shall tell how they hung and hovered around 
the tomb in the garden ? Who shall tell how they peered, 
with no unmeaning curiosity, into the arena of unem- 
blazoned conflict ? Who shall tell with what eagerness, 
with what throbbing anxiety, they rolled away the stone 
from the mouth of the Sepulchre ? And with what speech- 
less awe they saw Him rise masterful and victorious from 
the grave ? Oh ! if ever transport filled an angel's breast, 
if ever, through all their ranks, there swept ecstatic thrill 
on thrill — if ever the canopy of heaven rung, or the pillars 
of the throne quivered, or the everlasting hills shook, or 
the boundaries of immortality vibrated with impassioned 
song on song — it was when Jesus championed death and 
hell, when He broke the bars of death and burst the bar- 
riers of the tomb ! " Oh ! the burst gates, lost sting, de- 
molished throne, last gasp of vanquished death !" 

8 ' They brought His chariot from above, 
To bear Him to His throne ; 
Clapped their triumphant wings and cried 
The glorious work is done." 



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We have thus cursorily glanced at the " sufferings of 
Christ/ ' and their triumphant end. 

We proceed now to invite your attention to what we 
understand by "the glory that should follow." We have 
already seen that " death was swallowed up in victory," 
that our glorious Redeemer rifled him of his terrors, and 
by virtue of conquest, robbed him of his power ; but the 
glory was still to follow. He was still upon the earth, 
" seen of angels" — seen of His disciples. Forty days, 
however, after His successful breach on death, he ascend- 
ed on high, led captivity captive, while the opening hea- 
vens received His glorified humanity as their first and 
highest ornament. Then it was that there were realized 
the greetings and the hymns, and the hallelujahs of Che- 
rubim and Seraphim ; then it was that the " morning stars 
sang together," and the " spirits of just men made per- 
fect," shouted for joy ; then it was that the everlasting 
gates were lifted up, and the " King of glory " entered. 
Majesty was stamped on His brow, and His diadem 
flashed with imperishable gems. The keys of death and 
of hell hung on His girdle, while " upon His vesture and 
His thigh " was a name written — " King of Kings and Lord 
of Lords." But the glory was still to follow. With the 
serenity of unutterable satisfaction, He took His session at 
the right hand of God, " from henceforth expecting till 
His enemies be made His footstool." His merits dif- 
fused an odour and a fragrance through the length and 
breadth of His temple. His glance thrilled the heavenly 
hosts with rapture, and His mien inspired them with "joy 
unspeakable," and again they sang " Alleluia : for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth." " The glory that should 
follow " began to unfold itself It was introduced to man 



Angels Studying Redemption, 



ii3 



in a manner that precluded delusion or mistake. It was 
heard as the " sound of a rushing mighty wind;" it was 
seen in " cloven tongues like as of fire it was evidenced 
by signs and wonders, and marvels of power. With the 
descent of the Holy Ghost, the imposing rite, the speak- 
ing symbol, and the rich ceremonial of the olden times dis- 
appeared. Just 

" As by the light of opening day 
The stars are all concealed/ ' 

so was the glory of every former dispensation lost in the 
outbursting brightness of the glory that then followed. 
This, however, was but as the breaking of the morning. 
The glory was still to follow, more and more to the per- 
fect day. But let us enquire in what consisted the " glory " 
which thus became the theme of such earnest investiga- 
tion on the part of angels. May we not conclude that it 
was— 

1 . The glory of developed mercy t 

All the manifestations of the infinite with which angels 
had been favoured — all that they had witnessed in the 
administration of the Divine Government — all that they 
had seen in the procedure of the eternal Lawgiver, 
consisted in a rigid and determinate maintainance 
of truth and justice. When, therefore, they saw sin 
in all its malignity, and the truth and justice of God 
at stake, in the threatenings He had uttered against 
it ; when they expected that in one deed of ven- 
geance He would complete His every denunciation, and 
assert, before an intelligent universe, the impartiality of 
His government — with what desire must they have dwelt 
upon His acts, when, instead thereof, they saw the out- 

H 



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beaming of an attribute new and heretofore undiscovered? 
Mercy with angels was new, novel, strange ; what they 
had not expected, of which they had never calculated. 
When one of their principalities, a chief among the " sons 
of the morning," marshalled a mad and impotent confe- 
deracy against the " throne and monarchy 97 of the Eter- 
nal, when " he raised impious war in heaven, with battle 
proud and vain attempt , " insulted Godhead hurled him 
" down to bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adaman- 
tine chains and penal fire." In the case of man, they 
beheld another, and not less daring revolt; but instead of 
a judgment equally summary and unassuaged, they saw 
mercy " stoop to conquer " and to deliver. " Which 
things the angels desire to look into. ; ' We have said that 
mercy was an attribute of the Divine nature, which, ante- 
cedently to the rebellion of man, had not showed itself in 
its forbearance and its clemency. When, therefore, on 
behalf of man, it arose and put forth the might and gran- 
deur of its claims, and bent itself low, to wipe the brand 
of ruin from a fallen brow, they wondered and adored. 
They could have had no idea, until cognizant of God's 
dealings with man, that His love was of such a nature, 
that it could retain the ardour and the intensity of its 
yearnings amid all the risings of such enmity and such 
insurrection. And hence, when they saw that the Al- 
mighty encircled with a zone of compassion a rebel- 
lious race, and girded Himself with love, and went in quest 
of a ransom for the lost, and gave His own Son to baffle 
the stratagems of hell, they fell back in amaze. When 
they discovered that through this development of mercy, 
" a new and a living way " was opened for the return of the 
apostate — and when they saw it heave and roll over first 



Angels Studying Redemption. 115 



one theatre of conspiracy, and then another, and beheld 
its refining and saving effects on the disaffected and the 
treasonable, they " shouted for joy." We may well con- 
clude then, that a scheme so replete with pardon, so 
abounding with life, and so illustrative of Divine mercy, 
should swell angelic " desire." Hence again, their joy and 
their jubilee when mercy triumphs in the plucking of a 
sinner as " a brand from the burning." They see Mercy 
go out to meet the sinner in the error of his way; they see 
the sinner smitten with a sense of his sin, and they joyfully 
minister to an " heir of salvation." They quit their 
golden thrones, their dazzling diadems, their radiant 
abode ; they leave the sublime song, and symphony and 
hallelujah chorus of celestial minstrelsy, that they may 
gaze upon the tear, and listen to the sigh of the returning 
prodigal. And when on high the fact is known that the 
tear has actually gathered, and that the sigh has really 
heaved and broken in the bosom of the stranger to such 
an emotion — that the sinner has fairly repented his sin — 
the tides rise, and the raptures sweep, and " there is more 
joy in the presence of the angels in heaven over one sin- 
ner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons." 
And are we not justified in supposing that this flow of 
congratulation is strengthened, and enhanced, and intensi- 
fied, just as the magnitude of mercy is magnified in the 
magnitude of the transgression repented of and forgiven ? 
The might, and the greatness, and the glory of mercy, 
developed and exemplified in the pardon of iniquity, 
transgression and sin is, we think, a phase of that glory 
into which angels desire to look. Again, we imagine that 
it embraces the glory — 



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2. Of unfolded truth in its relation to man. 

Whether we recognize truth amid the myriad mysteries 
of nature, science, or philosophy ; whether we trace her 
footsteps in the fields of celestial light, or listen to her 
voice as it rises above the dull dissonance of earth's jar- 
ring tongues, we find that her price is above rubies, and 
earth's greatest treasures are as nothing when compared 
with her. Changeless amid ceaseless change, unaltered 
amid universal alteration, she claims the eternal years of 
God as hers. And yet, for how many ages did truth 
remain latent, or at least unknown. Take even God's 
chosen , His peculiar, His specially favoured people — they 
to whom pertained the oaths, the promises, and the cove- 
nant — they to whom were entrusted the " lively oracles," 
and how limited was their knowledge, and how dim and 
sepulchral the lights of their temple. Theirs was a reli- 
gion of symbols, and of shadows, and of outward and sen- 
suous signs. Nor did the deep organ-tones of prophecy 
swell into such volume as to give anything like a definite 
idea of the purpose of the Infinite. The reach of human 
philosophy fell painfully short when she attempted to ex- 
plore the realms of the True, and to sound the depths of 
the Divine. Nor was it until He who was the " Truth 
and the Life," threw open her secret places, that either 
man or angels could understand her language and her 
strength. His life and His teaching, however, solved the 
problem of ages. In His life, and in His death, every type 
was illustrated, every shadow substantiated, and the old 
herald-stars were lost in the brightness and effulgence of 
His rising. The throne of ancient night was broken, and 
its ebon sceptre was resigned for ever. It was then that 
humanity arose— arose to more than pristine dignity and 



Angels Studying Redemption. 117 



greatness — it was then that the superincumbent incubus 
of guilt and darkness was rolled away — it was then that 
man was allowed and enabled to bathe his intellect and 
his heart in the crystalline splendours of truth and of pu- 
rity. Everything essential for man to know of God and 
himself, of time and eternity, of earth and of heaven, was 
written as in sunbeams. Truth sprang out of the earth, 
righteousness looked down from heaven. And when 
those beings whose love of truth is only equalled by their 
devotion to the God of truth — when they saw its influence 
upon our race, how it clarified the human intellect, and 
purified the human heart, how it transformed the Ufe of 
man, and poured a new complexion over his moril his- 
tory ; when they saw how that, by the development of 
truth, Jehovah had diffused through the scattered wrecks 
of a stupendous rebellion a new force of vitality, and be- 
held the rebellious renovated by the power of truth, 
crowding the avenues to Zion, they "shouted for joy!" 
This surely was a phase of that following glory into which 
the angels desire to look. 

3. Christ risen, and mediatorial glory must enlist their 
thought. 

Let us for a moment take a higher stand, let us scale a 
loftier altitude and join Cherubim and Seraphim in gazing 
on the glory of an exalted Redeemer. It is saying little to 
say that the highest, purest,, most entrancing exhibitions 
of the Deity are mediatorial. One like unto the Son of 
Man is in the midst of the " Golden Candlesticks" — " The 
Lamb is in the midst of the Throne " — while every tribu- 
tary of heaven's glory seems but to swell the floods which 
rise from man's redemption. "We see Jesus crowned 
with glory and honour." The tokens of his passion, the 



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scars of the sacrificial knife are still visible on His sacred 
person. 

" He looks like a Lamb that has been slain, and wears 
His priesthood still." " I saw," says John, " seven golden 
candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven golden candle- 
sticks one like unto the Son of Man/' Like unto the Son 
of Man ! Hear, O ye heavens, and wonder ! He seized 
our nature, wrenched it from the grasp of the tomb, with 
Him it passed the crystal ports of light and shines resplen- 
dent in the midst of the golden candlesticks. u And His 
eyes were as a flame of fire " — not flashing, and blasting, 
and consuming — but radiant as the sun, serene as the 
ether, and soft as everlasting love. " And His counte- 
nance was as the sun shining in his strength ; " " And on 
His head were many crowns." The brightest, however, 
of these " many crowns " must have been the mediatorial 
one. The jewelled crown of empire must have paled its 
lustre before the splendour of redemption's diadem. This 
was no garland of celestial laurel, no chaplet woven of rain- 
bows, but a crown begemmed and flashing with the starry 
worth of all the ransomed. We think we are warranted in 
assuming that the supreme honours and glories of the God- 
head are mediatorial. And although the mediatorial ele^ 
ment may have entered into the administration of the Divine 
Government, may have exerted its influence coeval with 
God's dealings with men, yet it was not until the comple- 
tion of the redemptive work, and Jesus was exalted a 
Prince and a Saviour, that angels saw its matchlessness, 
and proclaimed its glory. But from the structure of this 
passage we infer, that the glory into which angels desire 
\o look is the glory — 



Angels Studying Redemption. 



119 



4. Oj Chrisfs Universal Conquest. 

We have already seen that the angels take a lively and 
unwearying interest in the exhibitions and triumphs of 
Divine truth. And when " the Lord said unto my Lord, 
sit thou at My right hand till I make thine enemies thy 
footstool," it put them on the utmost stretch of all their 
power to ascertain and to measure the vastness of His 
achievements. They know that He must reign " till all His 
enemies shall be put under His feet." That He shall 
have " the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost 
parts of the earth for His possession/' They know that 
" His name shall endure forever," and that " of the in- 
crease of His government and peace there shall be no 
end." And allow me to ask, who shall justly paint the new 
scenes of glory ever opening to angelic gaze, and lifting 
angelic song in connection with the conquest of Em- 
manuel? If " there is more joy in the presence of the 
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth than over 
ninety and nine just persons," who shall number the occa- 
sions of their gladness, or tell the " waves of delighted 
sensibility " that sweep their ranks, as day after day, hour 
after hour, moment after moment some new triumph is 
secured, some new victory is won ? There must be some- 
thing approaching ecstacy in angelic emotion as they 
behold Christianity clothing with a glad enchantment the 
wide wastes of the earth, and causing its solitudes to pul- 
sate anew in virtue of a higher life. Who shall tell with 
what assiduity and tenderness, in view of the beneficent 
bearing of His ministry they tend the missionary of the 
Cross as he urges his Commission to the neglected 
and forgotten? O, it is an invigorating thought, that 
such is the nature of the missionary's work when you send 



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him forth, and he goes, clad in the might which God sup- 
plies, you touch a spring which stirs angelic sympathy, and 
brings angelic aid. Are they not all ministering spirits sent 
forth ? and may we not suppose that if a man or woman 
can occupy one position more interesting to angels than 
another, it is that of the missionary, Whether he makes 
his home in " fiery climes/' or " dwells in thrilling regions 
of thick-ribbed ice," they become the servants of your 
servant — rejoicing in his joy, soothing his sorrow, an- 
nouncing his victories, and bearing his record on high. 
And thus, and thus it shall be, till the river shall become 
an ocean ; till the light of the moon shall be as the light 
of the sun, and the light of the sun as seven days ; till 
every prison shall be empty, and every colony without a 
conscript, and every continent without a sinner ; till a 
ransomed earth shall roll its rapturous hosannahs to the 
vaulted heavens, "and heaven and earth conspire to 
praise Jehovah and His conquering Son." " Which things 
the angels desire to look into." Which things " the suffer- 
ings of Christ and the glory that should follow. ,, Stupen- 
dous things ! When I think of their plummetless profound 
I exclaim, " O, the depth both of the wisdom and the 
knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are His judg- 
ments and His ways past finding out ! " When I muse on 
their transcendent glory, I exclaim, " Such knowledge is 
too wonderful for me, I cannot attain unto it." " Deep call- 
eth unto deep," mountains on mountains rise, firmament 
encircleth firmament, and glory excelleth glory. But here 
we are lost, and with angels desire to look into these things. 
Happily for us, they are things which belong unto us and to 
our children, for ever and ever. We share their worth and 
in a sense, beyond an angel's reach, understand their import. 



Angels Studying Redemption. 



121 



And when earth shall have garnered its sheaves in ever- 
lasting storehouses, then, while angels sing their song of 
laudation — " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, 
and glory, and blessing." Our longest, loudest, deepest, 
sweetest song shall be "Unto Him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made 
us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be 
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 



A TRINITY OP INDISPENSABLES TO 
CHURCH INTEGRITY AND PROS- 
PERITY. 



SERMON VI. 

By REV. J. CARROLL, Leslieville. 

" Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou, 
and the ark of thy strength : let thy priests, O Lord God, be cloth- 
ed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. — ii Chron- 
icles, vi. 41. 



HERE are certain periods, or junctures, when 
the emergent religious necessities of a com- 
munity force themselves upon the minds of 
the thoughtful and devout with more than 
ordinary conviction and power. We should 
be attentive to these necessities at all times, 
but there are some particular occasions when 
we can scarcely ignore them, if we would. Such an 
emergency was upon the Israelites of old, when King 
Solomon uttered the petitions embraced in the text. 

This verse is a part of the solemn dedicatory prayer 
offered by the then wise and pious king at the consecra- 




A Trinity of Indispensables, etc. 123 



tion of the first Temple at Jerusalem. The treasure and 
materials had been a very long time in process of ac- 
cumulation, ever since the reign of David. The walls 
had been reared — the roof surmounted the building — the 
carving, gilding and draping were done. The appointed 
day for the dedication had arrived — the tribes of God's 
Israel had assembled from every part of the holy land — ■ 
hecatombs of sacrificial victims had bled — rivers of oil 
and wine had flowed as libations ; but these were not 
enough — the presence and blessing of the Great Supreme 
were required to cause this building to fulfil the ends for 
which it was built. Hence prayer was solemnly offered 
that all the blessings sought by the worshippers who 
should resort to that shrine might be timely granted — such 
as succour in defeat — rain in time of drought — and health 
when pestilence scattered its blight over the land. Having 
asked for all these, and more, with all necessary amplifi- 
cation, the royal supplicant comes, in the name of the 
assembled thousands of whom he was the spokesman, to 
offer the crowning request of all : " Now therefore arise, 
O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of 
thy strength : let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed 
with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness ! " 

There are three things here desiderated for God's 
Church, most important to its welfare in all time, to which 
it is very necessary for Canadian Methodists to direct 
their prayerful attention just at this juncture, when we are 
entering, not only a new ecclesiastical year, but a confed- 
eration and union of Methodist churches, which has been 
intended and hoped to subserve the interests of true re- 
ligion in these Provinces to an extent not heretofore 
realized ; these desiderata are — The Strengthening Pre- 



124 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



sence of the Lord God in the midst of His Church, a salvation- 
clothed ministry, and a membership of rejoicing saints. 

Let us pay particular attention to each of these, as 
objects of desire and cultivation. 

We need — 

I. The Strengthening Presence of the Lord God 
in the Midst of His People. " Arise, O Lord God, into 
thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength." 

The " resting place " of God, here mentioned, would, 
first of all, signify the Temple, comprehending especially 
the u Mercy Seat," beneath the wings of the cherubim, 
and over the " Ark of the Covenant," where the visible 
symbol of God's presence rested in the form of a cloud of 
glory. It was" so called probably from the fact that the 
symbol of His presence had accompanied the removal of 
the migratory tabernacle from place to place during 
Israel's unsettled state. But the Temple was a permanent 
structure, deeply founded, and liable to no such removal. 
He had said of this house (Ps. cxxxii. 14) " This is my 
rest for ever : here will I dwell ; for I have desired it" 
Yet He has dwellings which He prefers even to this ; these 
are the hearts of His people, severally and collectively. 
Thus, therefore, while He is " the High and Lofty one, 
who inhabiteth eternity," His dwelling is with the " low- 
ly," " to revive the spirit of the contrite ones." So, also, 
with regard to His people in general, He has declared, 
" I will dwell in them, and walk in them ; and I will be 
their God and they shall be my people." The psalmist 
says of the Church, " God is in the midst of her ; she 
shall not be moved : God shall help her, and that right 
early." (Ps. xlvi. 5.) 

The manper in which this desire for the advent of God's 



A Trinity of Indisp disables, etc. 125 



presence in His Church is expressed, is peculiar, and very 
significant: "Arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, 
thou, and the ark of thy strength." First, as to the word 
" arise," it may have been used in reference to the 
spectacle often exhibited during the journeys in the 
wilderness, of the cloudy, or fiery pillar, according as it 
was day, or night, by whose " rising up from off the 
camp/' — movements, and resting again, the Israelites were 
guided in their journeys and halts. But the use of the 
word " arise 99 is more likely to refer to the following 
facts : Orientals perform many acts which we perform 
upon our feet, in a sitting posture ; and when they arise, 
we know they have something of special energy and im- 
portance to perform. Thus, God's special doings are re- 
presented as being done in this active way; " Let God 
arise, let his enemies be scattered." (Ps. lxviii. 1.) " Thou 
shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion : for the time to 
favour her, yea, the set time is come." (Ps. cii. 13.) It 
therefore means, let God bestir Himself, and come with 
mighty energy and speciality into His Church and the 
hearts of His people. 

Further, " Thou, and the ark of thy strength." " Thou/' 
Thyself, in mighty deeds, not by mere symbols, or a mere 
fiction, but the power of Thine Almighty Spirit ! " Ark of 
Thy strength." The " Ark," containing the tables of the 
Law and the memorials of certain miracles occurring in 
the wilderness, the cover of which, beneath the wings of 
the cherubim, pre-eminently the spot where the symbol 
of God's presence rested, was there already, but the royal 
supplicant wished God's strengthening presence, the great 
ark of safety to God's people, to come also in very and 
mighty deed among them. 



126 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



It was this powerful presence of God which made His 
ministry and His people so potent for good in the best 
ages of the Church : in the apostolic age — the days of the 
Puritans — the times of the early American revivals — the 
days of early Methodism — and which occasioned the 
marked success which has crowned some of our modern 
missions — those in the South Seas, about thirty years ago, 
where hundreds and thousands, in some cases, were " born 
in a day." But why do I speak of these? Was it not 
this power which gained such remarkable testimony to 
the ministry of Mr. Caughey, and to the lessons of the 
Rev. Wm. Taylor, in England, Australia, South Africa, 
and India ; and which still more recently has crowned the 
preaching and efforts of two American laymen in Scotland 
and the North of England w r ith such glorious results ? 

This, therefore, is that which we ought to acknowledge 
our need of — to pray and labour for, by putting away 
whatever repels the presence and blessing of God, and 
by co-operating with this saving energy when it is vouch- 
safed. Let us set our hearts upon this. It is not enough 
for us to say, " We have a fine church — an able ministry, 
and plenty of funds ; we shall, therefore, necessarily 
have prosperity." Nay, these are good and valuable, and 
to some extent necessary, but they will all be vain unless 
God " come with a recompense, and come and save us." 

The presence of God is needful because it is the pro- 
ducing cause of the other objects desired, and bound up 
with the Church's prosperity. We notice the first of these 
two conditions of prosperity, namely : — 

II. A Salvation-Clothed Ministry. " Let Thy 
priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation ! " 

There are several instructive points of analogy betwe en 



A Trinity of Indispensables, etc. 127 



the ancient Aaronic and true ministers of the Gospel. Not 
indeed that there is any warrant for calling a Christian 
minister a priest, in the sense of the Romanist and the 
Episcopalian Ritualist. The minister is a priest it is true, 
in the sense in which all God's people are, a " royal 
priesthood/' or " kings and priests to God and the Lamb." 
Still, the Aaronic priest was in some sense the prototype 
of the Gospel minister. Like him, the minister must be 
" called of God as was Aaron ; " and, like him, supremely 
consecrated to God. The first offered sacrifices, which, 
though they " could not take away sin," pointed to the suf- 
ferings of Him " who in the end of time put away sin by the 
sacrifice of Himself ; " while, it is the business of the lat- 
ter to cry " Behold, behold, the Lamb ! " " The priest's 
lips were to teach knowledge, and they were to seek the 
law at His mouth ; the Gospel is to " teach the people all 
the words of this life " — to " give attendance to reading, 
to exhortation, to doctrine. " 

But if the minister would be efficient, he must "be 
clothed with salvation" " as with a garment." The Jew- 
ish priest wore sacerdotal robes, symbolical of his func- 
tions, but while the Israelites had the symbols, we are to 
have the reality. Need I say that salvation is a deliver- 
ance from evil, from moral evil especially — namely, the 
guilt, power and pollution of sin. There are two respects 
in which a minister must be clothed with salvation : he 
must be "clothed with righteousness as a garment," unto 
his own personal salvation ; and he must be clothed, or 
" endowed," with power to proclaim it efficiently to others. 
1. He must be the subject of salvation himself 
That is, he must be unmistakably and pre-eminently 
a saved man. He must possess the comforts and exem- 



128 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit 



plify the fruits of the salvation he offers to others. He 
must know God consciously as a pardoning God, and his 
own spirit in God's pardoning and justifying love. It must 
so glow in his heart and beam in his countenance, while 
he longs to proclaim it to others, in something like the 
exultant words of the poet : — 

" What we have felt and seen, 
With confidence we tell, 
And publish to the sons of men, 
The signs infallible. 

" We who in Christ believe, 
That He for us hath died, 
We all this unknown peace receive, 
And feel His blood applied. 

* i Exults our rising soul, 

Disburdened of its load, 
And swells unutterably full 
Of glory and of God !" 

It is needful for him also to have deliverance from the 
power and pollution of sin. He must exhibit both one 
and the other in the command of his tempers, appetites, 
and passions ; and in his loving compassion to the souls 
of sinful men. 

In proportion as a minister's personal happiness in God 
and His holiness, will be his power for good with those to 
whom he ministers. Nay, his life and conversation will 
be a continual sermon, saying, " Follow me as I follow 
Christ." 

These reflections will lead us to remark : 
2. Ministers must be clothed with power to proclaim 
Salvation efficiently. When Jesus was about to leave his 



A Trinity of Indispensables, etc. 



129 



disciples and to go away into Heaven, he directed them 
to return to Jerusalem and to " tarry in the city until 
they were endued with power from on high." Now, I 
say that the word " endue" signifies to clothe. This is 
something not necessarily put on with the assumption of 
priestly robes. It is not conferred in its plenitude on 
every converted man, but on those whom God has truly 
called to the ministerial work. Nor even do such enjoy 
it pre-eminently at all times. It is a divine bestowment, in 
answer to earnest, persevering prayer. When an emi- 
nently successful minister was asked how it was that he 
won so many more souls than his ministerial brethren, 
many of whom were superior to him in learning and 
talents, he answered, " It is a live business, brother." 
Some of the men thus divinely endowed were Edwards, 
Brainard, Whitfield, Bramwell, John Smith, Collins, 
Payson and Calvin Wooster. Let ministers, therefore, 
supplicate it for themselves, and the people of God, with 
one accord, ask it for their ministers. Oh that this en- 
dowment might be universally accorded to our pastors at 
home, and the missionaries of the church abroad ! 

Yet ministers are not the only ones concerned in fur- 
thering the progress of the church and the prosperity of 
religion, which the church is organized to promote in the 
world. 

This remark will lead us to notice the last desideratum 
or object of desire, namely :— 

III. A Membership of Rejoicing Saints. "And 
let thy saints rejoice in goodness ! " 

It is difficult to determine which is the more important 
to the welfare of the church and mankind, who it was de- 
signed to benefit — a proper ministry or a proper member- 
1 



130 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

ship. There are two elements in this desideratum relative 
to the membership of the church, which are important 
for us to notice : first, their holiness ; and secondly, their 
happiness. 

1. Their holiness is to be desired — that is their undeni- 
able and eminent holiness. Observe, they are denomin- 
ated "Saints," or holy ones. The word saint, it is known 
very well, is derived from sanctus, holy ; and all true 
Christians are holy, to some extent, at least. They are 
called " holy brethren" (Heb. hi. 1); and apostolic pro- 
vision is made for the instruction of " all the holy 
brethren" (1 Thess. v. 27). There are two respects in 
which they are holy — namely, constructively holy, and 
really holy. 

First, constructively holy, having put on, by faith, the 
justifying righteousness of Jesus, God " sees no iniquity in 
Jacob, no transgression in Israel." They are treated as 
innocent — as though they never had sinned. But there is 
a " real holiness " attending this reckoning of them holy. 
The faith which justifies also " works by love and purifies 
the heart." God commands us to be holy as He is holy. 
Yea, we are to "perfect holiness in the fear of God." 
These two (holiness declarative and real) not only coincide 
together, but they correspond in their proportionate ad- 
vancement. The brighter the evidence of our acceptance 
with God, the more of purity we possess and exemplify. 
Holiness in the members of the church is useful, as com- 
mending the character of the Gospel, and necessary to 
their moral influence for good. 

But there is that other characteristic inseparable from 
holiness, and which is essential to the believer's well-being 
and well-doing ; and that is — 



A Trinity oj Indispensables, etc. 131 

2. Happiness. It is expressed by the phrase, " rejoice 
in goodness." It may be taken in two ways : as rejoic- 
ing in enjoying good, and in seeing good done. 

( 1 ) Rejoicing in the experience and enjoyment of " good- 
ness/' which embraces peace and joy, and power and 
purity. That is, in plain terms, rejoice in feeling that 
they are safe and happy. God wills both the one and 
the other. " He is a God ready to pardon/' He does 
not delight in keeping us at a distance, or in having us 
" walk in darkness." Nay ; He wills us to " rejoice ever- 
more," yea, to " ask and receive that our joy may be full." 
Joy is not only the privilege of saints, but the exercise of 
it is their duty. "Rejoice in the Lord always; and 
again I say rejoice," says the voice of inspired authority. 
Joyfulness contributes to progress and to usefulness. 
Plants do not flourish well in the shade, sun-light being 
necessary to their growth and vigorous health. So also 
hopefulness and comfort contribute to our advancement 
in religion ; " We are saved by hope." Further, a pleas- 
ing countenance and habitual happiness are both very ef- 
ficient in commending religion to those who do not, as 
yet, possess it. All are ready to ask, " Who will show us 
any good ? " We want to be happy, tell us where happi- 
ness is to be found ! And how naturally they think we 
are qualified to tell when we seem to have found it our- 
selves, by the " lifting up of the light of God's countenance 
upon us." God's servants must not bring up an evil re- 
port upon religion by gloominess. Therefore, 

(2) Such joyful ones should, and will, rejoice in seeing 
good done, God's strengthening presence in His church— 
a salvation-clothed ministry — -and a joyful membership of 
holy persons, which are all linked together : these are 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



almost certain to see good accomplished. Or ? in other 
words, to see gainsaying silenced — the careless awakened 
— mourners comforted — the bewildered directed — the 
feeble strengthened — the people of God built up — and 
religion revived and advanced in all respects upon a 
gloriously triumphant scale. Oh, how desirable is this ! 
How important that we pray and labor for a consummation 
so devoutly to be wished. God hasten it in His time ! 
Amen. 



THE GLORIOUS ASCENSION AND TRI- 
UMPHANT REIGN OP OUR LORD 
JESUS CHRIST. 



SERMON VII. 

By the REV. WM. GALBRAITH, Montreal. 

" Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive : 
thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the rebellious also, that 
the Lord God might dwell among them." Ps. lxviii. 18. 

HIS Psalm was probably composed by David 
on the occasion of the removal of the Ark of 
God from the house of Obed-edom to Jeru- 
salem. In a pitched battle, the Philistines, 
the great enemy of the seed of Jacob, defeat- 
ed the Israelites, and slew of them four thou- 
sand men. 

The Hebrews cherished the most profound reverence 
for the Ark of the Covenant, and possessed boundless 
confidence in its power. This need awaken in us no sur- 
prise when we consider the many sacred associations of 
the Ark. It contained the golden pot of manna, Aaron's 




134 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

rod that budded, and the two tables of stone upon which 
were engraven, by the finger of the Almighty, the Ten 
Commandments. The lid of the Ark, which was covered 
with pure gold, constituted the mercy seat. At each end 
of the Ark was a hieroglyphic figure called the cherub. 
Between the cherubims was the shechinah, or glory-cloud, 
hovering over the mercy-seat, and symbolizing the Divine 
presence, and from which responses were given in an 
audible voice to the enquiring priests. Hence it is that 
Jehovah, in Scripture, is so often said to dwell between 
the cherubims. Frequently the Israelites had witnessed 
the most marvellous exhibitions of Divine power in con- 
nection with the Ark. They could not forget that in 
olden time when the priests bearing the Ark stepped 
into the water, Jordan's turbid streams rolled backward 
in mountain heaps, forming a dry passage for the hosts of 
God to pass over. Memory recalled the time when their 
forefathers went to battle against the Canaanites without 
the Ark, and were defeated ; but when it accompanied 
them at the seige of Jericho they were victorious. Being 
now defeated, and many of them slain, they vainly imagin- 
ed the Ark could save them when the God of Israel had 
forsaken them on account of their numerous and aggravat- 
ing offences. Therefore the elders of the people said, 
" Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of 
Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh amongst us, it may 
save us out of the hand of our enemies. " The Ark was 
accordingly brought ; but in vain. Israel was again 
smitten before the enemy, and there was a very great 
slaughter among the people ; for there fell that day thirty 
thousand men. 

The aged and infirm priest, Eli, sat by the wayside 



The Glorious Ascension, etc. 135 



anxiously awaiting the first intelligence from the battle- 
field. A man of Benjamin ran with the doleful tidings. 
Each sentence he uttered rose above its predecessor 
in the terribleness of its signification. First he an- 
nounces, " Israel has fled before the enemy." This was 
a great calamity. " There has also been a very great 
slaughter among the people." This was still more dis- 
tressing. "Thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, 
are dead." This was still more heart-rending ; but the 
climax is yet to come. " And the Ark of God is taken." 
The hoary priest bore all patiently till mention was made 
of the capture of the Ark. He was then transfixed with 
grief ; and falling headlong, he dislocated his neck, and 
there gave up the ghost. In the meantime, the Philis- 
tines took the Ark, and placed it in the temple of their 
chief god ; but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon 
them and their idol for their retention of the Ark. After 
being smitten with disease and death for seven months, 
they deemed it expedient to return the Ark to Israel. 
Preparations were accordingly made ; and they sent it to 
Bethshemesh ; thence it was conveyed to the obscure 
house of Abinadab, in Kirjath-jearim. After the lapse of 
many years David resolved to bring the Ark into Zion. 
Extensive preparations were made. Thirty thousand 
chosen men of Israel were assembled. They set the Ark 
on a new cart, purposing thus to transfer it to Jerusalem. 
When the oxen shook the cart, Uzzah put forth his hand to 
hold the Ark ; but the Lord smote him for his error, and he 
died. Ah, poor Uzzah had forgotten that the strict prohibi- 
tion of Heaven, under the awful penalty of death, was that 
no unconsecrated hand should touch the Ark. Uzzah is the 
first on record to violate the command ; and the first to 



136 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



endure the terrible consequences. The whole multitude 
were arrested in their progress. They knew not what to 
do. For touching the Ark, one of their number was 
lying in the cold embrace of death. They stood amazed 
and perplexed in the presence of this symbol of the 
Divine Majesty. In the midst of their dilemma, up came 
an old man, Obed-edom by name, and said unto them, 
"If ye cannot proceed with the Ark, let it turn aside, I 
pray you, into my house." It was accordingly brought 
into the house of - Obed-edom, where it remained three 
months. David went home, and studied more carefully 
the law of the Lord, from which he learned that the Ark 
should be carried by the priests consecrated for that specific 
purpose, and not drawn by oxen. The Hebrew monarch, 
now deeply humbled, laid aside his royal apparel, clothed 
himself in a plain linen robe, like one of the common 
priests, and again assembled the musicians, singers, 
princes, nobles, and all the great men of the realm ; and 
proceeded once more to bring the Ark to the royal city. 
The priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant, David led 
the van of the host, and the musicians followed ; and the 
princes, nobles, and all the distinguished men of the 
kingdom brought up the rear. As they ascended Mount 
Zion to the royal residence, David addressed the Ark — 
the symbol of God's presence — in the words of our text : 
" Thou hast ascended on high ; thou hast led captivity 
captive ; thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the re- 
bellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among 
them." But whatever reference this passage may have 
had originally to the ascent of the Ark, it is obvious from 
the application St. Paul makes of it, in the fourth chapter 
of Ephesians, that its full import can be realized only by 



The Glorious Ascension, etc. 



137 



the triumphant ascension of the Lord Jesus. In its ap- 
plication to our ascended Lord, we use the text this 
morning. 

I. We have the Glorious Ascension of our Di- 
vine Redeemer. 

II. His Triumphant Reign ; and 

III. The Blessings consequent on His Ascen- 
sion and Victory. 

The ascension of Jesus Christ was an event represented 
by type, and foretold by the prophets. There are many 
things connected with it demanding special attention. The 
time when it occurred was forty days after His resurrection. 
During this period, Jesus frequently appeared unto His 
disciples, and gave them the fullest evidence that He had 
risen from the dead. His disciples went everywhere 
preaching a risen Saviour ; allowing His enemies to care- 
fully investigate their statements ; and, if false, undeceive 
those who had given credence to them. His ascension 
was visible. It was a real, local translation of the 
human body, and human soul of Jesus Christ from this 
world to the highest Heaven ; and was witnessed by both 
men and angels. The scene of His ascension was the 
Mount of Olives. It pleased the God-man — the Divine 
Logos — to reveal more of His humanity in connection with 
this Mount than anywhere else under Heaven. How 
often, after the toils and fatigue of the day in the wicked 
and captious city, did He repair to Bethany, situated on 
the eastern base of Olivet, to share the kind hospitality of 
Lazarus and his pious sisters ! There He laid aside the 
awful character of prophet and teacher Divine, to rest His 
hard-tried energies upon the gentle amenities of social 
life, Only thrice in the Bible have we an account 



138 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



of Jesus weeping, and on each occasion it was on the 
Mount of Olivet. The first instance was when He sym- 
pathized and wept with the weeping sisters. There He 
blended his tears with those of sad bereavement; and 
with wonderful voice called Lazarus from the grave — 
voice wonderful indeed, for it startled the dull ear of death 
and made the inexorable grave deliver up its prey. The 
second time that Jesus wept was over the poluted city. 
From Olivet He beheld Jerusalem ; He remembered her 
privileges and her sins ; He saw her approaching doom ; 
the sight affected His heart; the heart affected the eye; and 
he burst into a flood of tears, and wept over its infatuat- 
ed people. The third time that Christ wept was in the 
garden of Gethsemane — at the foot of the Mount of 
Olives. None of the Evangelists make mention of His 
shedding tears on that occasion, though three of them 
give a detailed account of His agony. The omitted in- 
formation is supplied by Paul, in Heb. v. 7 : " Who in 
the days of His flesh, when he had offered up prayers and 
supplications, with strong crying a?id tears, unto Him that 
was able to save Him from death." 

On Olivet, Christ mounted the ass, and rode triumphant- 
ly to Jerusalem, amid the loud hosannas of the tumultuous 
throng. On this Mount, Jesus answered those three 
questions of His anxious disciples, pregnant with mean- 
ing: " Master, when shall there not be left one stone on 
another of that great temple, that shall not be thrown 
down?" " What shall be the sign of thy coming ? ;? "And 
when will be the end of the world ? " The answers to 
those questions are found in the wonderful revelations re- 
corded in the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew. On 
Olivet the Master gave the great commission to His 



The Glorious Ascension, etc. 



139 



disciples to evangelize the world. From Olivet He as- 
cended to glory. It had witnessed some of the most 
marvellous exhibitions of His humanity; and it must 
behold a glorious display of Divine power. 

The last act of Jesus before His ascension was to bless 
His disciples. He came to bless ; lived to bless ; died to 
secure blessings for our race ; and ascended to Heaven 
with blessings dropping from His lips upon His Church. 
He led them out to Olivet, and, with more than princely 
dignity and pontificial authority, " He lifted up His hands 
and blessed them; and it came to pass, while He blessed 
them, He was parted from them and carried up into 
Heaven.' 7 Had earth been possessed with ears adapted 
to celestial language, on that memorable occasion, as in 
jubilant pomp He ascended through the immeasurable 
concave of the Heavens, she might have heard His 
princely heralds surprise the waiting thrones of eternity 
with a voice of thunder, saying : " Lift up your heads, O 
ye gates ; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and 
the King of Glory shall come in." Hark ! the heavenly 
hierarchy within enquires, " Who is this King of Glory ? " 
The angelic retinue without, reply : " The Lord strong and 
mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." And then they re- 
iterate their demand : " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; 
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of 
£Hory shall come in." Those within again ask : " Who 
ijs this King of Glory ? " The celestial train without, once 
more reply : " The Lord of hosts ; He is the King of 
Glory." Lo ! the pearly gates of Heaven are thrown 
wide open; and Jesus, clothed with the glories of redemp- 
tion, and attended by legions of mighty angels, enters, 
and ascends His throne amid the loudest jubilation of the 



140 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

skies. The songs of triumph rise, and roll across all the 
Elysian plains of Paradise. Foremost, doubtless, in 
those joyous anthems, were the redeemed spirits from 
earth. Why ? Because then, for the first time, they saw 
a human body, after passing through the chambers of 
death, glorified, and enthroned at the right hand of God. 
They saw the human and Divine nature, inseparately con- 
nected, and occupying the same throne in the Heavens. 
And in that glorified body of Jesus Christ, they beheld 
the pledge, the proof and the pattern, of their future and 
final glorification. 

II. We proceed next to consider Christ's Tri- 
umphant Reign. " Thou hast led captivity captive.'' 
Allusion is here made to the custom among ancient 
nations of celebrating military triumph. 

In days of ancient chivalry, when gallant generals led 
oriental armies in triumph over gory battle-fields, their 
grateful fellow-citizens were wont to do them honour by giv- 
ing them, on their return home, a brilliant triumphal pro- 
cession. No expense or labour was spared which would 
make the scene grand and imposing. The brave con- 
queror was borne in a gorgeously decorated war chariot, 
drawn by four white horses ; the most illustrious person- 
ages in the vanquished army, including captains, princes, 
and kings, were bound to the chariot, and walked after it 
to grace the victor's triumph. As he approached the city, 
the wall was thrown down, signifying thereby that a city 
possessing such a hero had no need of other defence. 
Flushed with accumulating glories, he scattered gifts from 
the spoils of battle upon the people who swelled the pro- 
cession. Jesus Christ is here represented as a great con- 
queror, having vanquished the powers of darkness, and 



The Glorious Ascension, etc. 141 

destroyed the hopes of hell, returning to the capital of the 
universe, and scattering blessings upon the redeemed and 
exulting Church. Indeed, the holy Scriptures frequently 
present Him in the character of a successful Warrior. As 
such He is brought before us in the celebrated enquiry of 
- the evangelical prophet, " Who is this that cometh from 
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?" And the 
conquering King replies, " I that speak in righteous- 
ness, mighty to save." In the apocalyptic visions, St. 
John says he saw, when the first seal was opened, " and 
behold a white horse, and He that sat on him had a bow; 
and a crown was given unto Him, and He went forth 
conquering and to conquer." The Psalmist represents 
the Father as saying unto the Son, " Sit thou at my 
right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." 
And an inspired Apostle assures us, " He must reign till 
He hath put all enemies under His feet." Christ has 
enemies. 

The enemies of the Divine Son are either temporal or 
spiritual — those persons and nations that visibly oppose 
the spread of truth and the prosperity of the Church, and 
those hidden powers that obstruct unseen the develop- 
ment of Christ's kingdom. Of the former class, in the 
early days of Christianity, were the Jews and the Romans. 
The one rejected, falsely accused, and delivered Him into 
the hands of the Gentiles • the other put Him to death. 
After His crucifixion, both appear to have entered a con- 
federacy for the extermination of the Christian cause. 
But both must fall before the march of His triumph. 
About forty years after His crucifixion the Jews were 
made the footstool of the victorious King, by the utte r 
destruction of their temple, city, and the whole of their 



142 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



polity. By successive persecutions the Romans aimed 
at blotting the Christian religion out of existence. In 
what is commonly called the tenth persecution, they struck 
a medal upon which was engraven, " Christianity abolished, 
and the worship of the gods established. " Never did a more 
daring, impious sentence fall under the eye of earth or heaven. 
But was it true ? As well might man try to stop the tides 
in their course, to pluck the planets from their sockets, or 
to demolish the eternal throne, and hurl from heaven its 
Occupant, as to destroy the Christian religion. It is in 
accordance with the laws of nature that waters ebb and 
flow, the planets revolve and shine \ and it is in accord- 
ance with the unalterable decree of the Almighty that 
Christianity should speed and spread in boundless pro- 
gress till the sweet melodies of redeeming love shall float 
on every breeze, and echo from every mountain. Soon 
emerging from its supposed grave, and invigorated by 
the blood of its martyrs, Christianity asserted its indis- 
tructible power, and the banner of the cross was unfurled 
over the whole Roman empire. 

" Julian, the apostate/' aimed at destroying Christianity 
by depriving the Church of schools and the means of 
education. 

The fact that Christianity has to-day almost a monopoly 
of the literature of the world, is a standing evidence of the 
utter failure of his undertaking. He died fighting against 
the Persians. When mortally wounded, he took a hand- 
ful of the blood flowing from his own veins, and threw ft up 
towards heaven, in malignant hatred against Christ, saying, 
" Thou hast conquered, O Galilean ! 99 

Sooner or later the same confession will be extorted 
from every foe, " He must reign till He has put all ene- 



The Glorious Ascension, etc. 143 



mies under His feet." " Gird Thy sword upon Thy 
thigh, O most Mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty, 
and in Thy majesty — ride prosperously because of truth, 
and meekness, and righteousness." Ride on Thou mighty 
conquering Jesus, ride on, Thine enemies all subdue. Let 
the foes of Thy kingdom, and the haters of truth be scat- 
tered and perish at the glance of Thine eye. 

At the present time the temporal enemies of Jesus 
Christ are Paganism, Mohammedanism, and Popery. 
These giant systems of error are all fated to a fearful 
doom. 

The passing events of each successive year prognosti- 
cate unmistakably the infallible purposes of the Almighty 
in reference to the downfall of Romanism. The Moslem 
religion, which once wielded the destinies of nearly all 
Europe, and covered the fairest portion of Asia, is almost 
a thing of the past. Soon the Crescent will everywhere 
give place to the Cross, and the rich, crimson fold of the 
Christian banner will again float in triumph over the 
homaged birth-scene of the world's redemption. Pagan- 
ism is smiling under the decrepitude of advancing years, 
the flush and vigour of life are gone. The diffusion of 
Bible truth, aggressive civilization, and ever increasing 
discoveries and inventions, are digging the grave of 
Heathenism. 

The spiritual foes of the Divine Son are sin, Satan and 
death. Each claims the power of despotic royalty ; and 
would fain exercise a universal and destructive reign. 
But Jesus Christ has already achieved a victory over these 
dark invisible powers, and He will yet effect their utter 
destruction. On the cross, when He made a grand and 
full atonement for human transgression, the brilliant vie- 



144 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



tory was gained over sin and Satan. But Death, on his 
" pale horse " still will be the un vanquished enemy of man. 
It was not till the morning of the third day that his scep- 
tre was broken. Then our conquering Lord met, and 
vanquished the " king of terrors" in his own domain, and 
rose in triumph, like a God. These spiritual foes have 
been conquered, but they must be destroyed. The struggle 
is in progress. The army of light, and the legions of 
darkness are in the field. Which shall ultimately triumph ? 
When we look at the numerous false systems of religion 
flaunting their crime-stained banners in the face of vir- 
tue; at bold infidelity stalking over the earth with defiant 
mien ; when we consider the cold formalism, the stupid 
indifference, the thirst for fashion and for gold invading 
the different branches of the Church, blind unbelief would 
suggest that sin, Satan, and death will finally triumph, and 
that error, crime and sin will inundate the whole world 
with their dark and turgid waves. But then the living 
light of Heaven's own truth flashes through the firmament 
of our minds, we ascend the mount of Christian vision, 
and with the eye of faith survey the whole continent of 
Divine promises, surrounded by an ocean of evidence 
that every one shall be fulfilled, and in jubilant anticipation 
we exclaim, " Christ shall ultimately triumph, for 'He 
must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet ! ' " 
He will effect the utter destruction of sin in all true 
believers. His mission was to "save His people from, 
their sins." He will save them from the guilt, the defile- 
ments, and the consequences of sin. Here on earth their 
souls will be emptied of all sin, and filled with " all the ful- 
ness of God." 

He will destroy Satan. This usurper ambitiously 



The Glorious Ascension, etc. 



MS 



aimed at ruling the race, but Christ " shall destroy him 
that hath the power of death, that is the devil. " 

The king of the sepulchre was defeated at the resur- 
rection of Jesus ; but he will be utterly destroyed at the 
general resurrection of the saints. " The last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is death/' " Then shall be brought to 
pass the saying that is written, 6 Death is swallowed up in 
victory/ " Amid the effulgent glories of the resurrection 
morn, the saints of God will stand on the tomb of their 
final foe, and sing the victors' hymn, " O death, where is 
thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of 
death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks 
be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Then the body, freed from every trace of 
sin and from all its consequences, will shine illustrious as 
the sun ; and the whole army of the redeemed will ascend 
through parting heavens to their respective thrones. Each 
saint will bear the resplendent image of his Lord. " As 
we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear 
the image of the heavenly." Christ will change our vile 
body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious 
body, according to the working whereby He is able even 
to subdue all things unto Himself. " We shall be like 
Him, for we shall see Him as He is." This then is the 
grand ultimate design of all Christ's triumphs — to re-en- 
stamp on man the Divine image, to make believers in 
soul and body like Himself. 

III. The blessings consequent on His ascension 
and victory. " Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, 
for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell 
among them." 

The blessings bestowed are general and special. Christ 
J 



146 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



is the Saviour of all men; but specially of those that believe. 
(1 Tim. iv. 10.) The general gifts are those imparted to 
the whole human family. These include the gifts of a 
kind Providence. " He maketh His sun to rise on the 
evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the 
unjust." They comprehend all the unconditional bles- 
sings in the economy of redemption. Christ is God's 
universal gift to the world. He has made an atonement 
for the sins of all. The Bible is a common gift to the 
race. The Holy Spirit in a certain measure is given to 
every man. He is sent into the world to " reprove the 
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." But 
there are special blessings bestowed upon those who com- 
ply with the conditions upon which God offers His saving 
grace to men. Such are the blessings of a special Provi- 
dence, the heavenly renewal of our nature ; the direct wit- 
ness of the Spirit, attesting our reconciliation with God, and 
all the daily benedictions of heaven. " And I will make 
them, and the place round about My hill, a blessing ; and 
I will cause the shower to come down in his season : 
there shall be showers of blessing." Religious teachers, 
and officers in the church are included in those special 
gifts. " He gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; 
and some, evangelists ; and some pastors and teachers ; 
for the perfecting of the saints, for the word of the 
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Indeed, 
those gifts include salvation and heaven, with all that 
these comprehensive terms imply. 

For what purpose are those gifts bestowed upon men ? 
"That the Lord God might dwell among them." God 
delights in having fellowship with His saints. Jesus said : 
" If a man love Me, he will keep My words ; and My 



The Glorious Ascension, etc* 147 



Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and 
make Our abode with him." The last comforting pro- 
mise which fell from the Master's lips before His ascen- 
sion was, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world." 

" God resides among His own, 
God doth in His saints delight. " 

But for what purpose does He impart His gifts to the 
rebellious ? Is it that He may dwell with them also ? 
That is, doubtless the ultimate design. True, Christ hath 
no concord with Belial, but He represents Himself as 
knocking at the door of the sinner's heart for admission, 
that He may enter and expel everything which is unlike 
God. 

From this subject we learn a few very important 
lessons. 

1 . From the ascension of Christ we learn that we have 
now a " Great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who is 
passed into the Heavens, and who ever liveth to make in- 
tercession for us according to the will of God." " And if 
any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous." " Wherefore, He is able 
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God 
by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercssion for 
them/' O sinner, your life is spared in the midst of 
your rebellion, because Jesus perpetually intercedes ; 
and, O ye saints of God, this intercession is the procuring 
cause of all your graces and blessings. 

2. From the sovereignty of Christ, we learn our duly to 
Him as our King. " The majesty of a king demands the 
obedience of the subject." If, therefore, we acknowledge 



i 48 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



Christ as our King, let us render him a willing and un- 
reserved obedience. 

3. From the triumphant reign of the Son of God, we 
learn our security under His protection. If this mighty 
conquering Jesus is our King and the Captain of our 
Salvation, what need we fear ? How often are we like 
Elisha's servant, when the Syrian hosts went up to 
Dothan to capture his master. When he saw the immense 
army, with horses and chariots, surrounding the city, he 
cried out with fear, saying : " Alas, my master ! how shall 
we do? " Elisha prayed : " Lord, open his eyes, that he 
may see." And the Lord opened the young man's eyes ; 
and what did he see ? All the mountain round about 
the prophet was covered with horses and chariots of fire — 
an army from the living Lord had come forth for his pro- 
tection. Often in our gloomy thoughts we see only the 
mighty forces arrayed against us, and, in the disquietude 
of our souls, cry out : " Alas, my master ! how shall we 
do?" Oh thou compassionate Saviour, open our eyes 
that we may see \ for " the angel of the Lord encampeth 
round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them/ 7 

4. From the fact that Christ has procured gifts for 
men, we learn the confidence with which we should ap- 
proach the throne of grace. I have read in the records of 
olden time, that Alexander, the conqueror of the world, 
had an intimate friend — a philosopher — who was in very 
straitened circumstances. Alexander, apprized of his 
poverty, wrote an order on his treasurer, signed his name, 
but left the amount blank, to be filled in by the philos- 
opher himself. This was immediately sent to the poor 
man, who inserted a very large amount, and presented it 
to be cashed. The treasurer refused to pay the amount^ 



The Glorious Ascension, etc. 



149 



and upbraided the man with imposing on his master's 
generosity. When Alexander heard thereof, he command- 
ed the money to be paid, and said he was delighted with 
the philosopher's way of thinking, and regarded his act 
as one of the greatest honour. " If," said he, " this man 
had only inserted a small sum, it would have shown that 
he thought I was either unable or unwilling to pay a large 
amount. But now that he has put in so much, it shows 
the man has lofty conceptions of the greatness of my 
benevolence, and the vastness of my wealth/' 

Do we not often dishonour God by our scanty petitions ? 
We come to the mercy-seat as if we were afraid we would 
exhaust the Divine treasury, and bankrupt Heaven 
Henceforth let us show by the minuteness and compre- 
hensiveness of our petitions, that we have some proper 
conception of the provision made for our comfort and 
salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ. The 
infinite heart of our Divine Redeemer is gladdened by 
the free bestowment of munificent gifts. Honour Him by 
large requests. " Ask and receive, that your joy may be 
full." 



THE CUSTODY OF THE HEART. 



SERMON VIII. 

By REV. H. BLAND, Quebec. 

" Keep thy heart with all diligence ; for out of it are the issues of 
life." — Prov. iv. 23. 

N this Divine command the heart is spoken of 
in terms very emphatic ; " out of it are the is- 
sues," or goings forth, " of life/' Life is what 
the heart is. The outward man, if not in ap- 
pearance yet in reality, is the reflection of the 
inward. The one is the stream ; the other the 
fountain — the one the branches ; the other the root. The 
life may be trimmed and modified and shaped to meet the 
requirements of the eye, but its moral texture and grain 
are the same as the heart. Given the heart, you have the 
man. Hence the command, " Keep thy heart with all 
diligence." 

Why keep the heart and How keep tt, are the questions 
before us. 

I. Why keep the Heart? Why not watch the lip 
and gauge the action and bridle the temper — why not 




The Custody of the Heart. 



keep a strict and ceaseless vigilance over the outward 
man ; that which others see, and which alone can be to 
others a beacon of guidance — why not prominently and 
principally endeavour to secure a correct and harmonious 
life ? Has not Christ said : " Let your light so shine before 
men, that others seeing," &c. Then why not, in the first 
instance, specially guard and mature and beautify the 
life? Because the light seen without must be first 
kindled and then fed from within — the works seen by 
men must be secretly germinated in the retirement of 
the heart. The life is either sweet or bitter ; light or 
dark ; wholesome or noxious, just as the controlling organ 
within is either the one or the other. 

1 . The heart must be kept, in the first place, because it is 
the fountain of character. During a visit which I made to 
the remote sections of the Belleville district, some ninety 
miles north of the town, I met with a farmer, who, on 
leaving the shores of the beautiful Bay of Quinte, had 
taken with him to his remote clearing in the woods a 
large quantity of apple seeds. These seeds were pro- 
miscuous ones — various kinds thrown together without 
assortment. The difference between the varieties was 
scarcely, if at all, perceptible, yet each seed was not only 
a potential apple tree, but an apple tree of a specific kind. 
Each seed would, under proper conditions of develop- 
ment, give its own kind of apple ; but that was the range 
of its capability — it would grow nothing but the apple— 
not a single seed that would spontaneously grow a peach, 
or even a pear. So with the human heart — if left to 
itself, that is, if unchanged by the Spirit of God, it invari- 
ably grows character of a specific kind, and that kind is 
always ungodly. It may be modified by disposition and 



i$2 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

circumstance — in some more, in others less ungodly, but 
in every case naturally and essentially ungodly ; and this 
ungodliness of character is as much the outgrowth of the 
heart, as the apple tree is the outgrowth of the seed. 

Doubtless some, while acknowledging the prevailing 
imperfection of human character — acknowledging it be- 
cause they cannot do otherwise— would fain account for 
it in any way rather than on the ground of the moral and 
native unsoundness of the heart, but its uniformity and 
universality show that it is in the seed, and not in the 
training. 

The late Dr. Arnold of Rugby, in a letter to a friend, 
touches the point most significantly. " Since I began this 
letter I have had some of the troubles of school keeping, 
and one of those specimens of the evil of boy nature 
which makes me always unwilling to undergo the respon- 
sibility of advising any man to send his son to a public 
school. * * * The exceedingly small number 
of boys that can be relied on for active and steady 
good, * * makes me strongly feel exemplified 
what the Scriptures say about the 4 Strait Gate 1 and the 
'wide one/ — a view of human nature which, when look- 
ing on human life in its full dress of decencies and civil- 
izations, we are apt, I imagine, to find it hard to realize. 
But here, in the nakedness of boy nature, one is quite 
able to understand how there could not be found so many 
as ten righteous in a whole city. And how to meet this 
evil, I really do not know ; but to find it thus rife after I 
have been so many years fighting against it, is so sicken- 
ing, that it is very hard not to throw up my work in des- 
pair. But then the stars of nobleness which I see amid 
the darkness, in the case of the few, are so cheering, that 



The Custody of the Heart. 



*53 



one is inclined to stick to the ship again, and have 
another good tug at getting her about." 

Arnold's experience, so honestly expressed, corresponds 
with that of every unprejudiced student of human nature. 
A learned and amiable gentleman in one of the cities of 
the United States, and who professed to believe in the 
inherent goodness of the heart, though very fond of 
Thackeray as a writer, was displeased with the humiliating 
representations which the great satirist gave of human 
society. To a mutual friend — a friend whose disposition 
was equally strong to believe in the native goodness of 
the heart, he candidly and somewhat passively said : 
" Thackeray makes me so much out of love with man- 
kind, that I have determined to read him no more." He 
could not disprove his truthfulness — he was obliged to 
acknowledge the fidelity of the literary photographer, but, 
like the ostrich pursued by the hunter, he preferred to 
hide his head in the bush, and imagine himself and all others 
right, rather than manfully look the unwelcome facts of 
man's natural degeneracy full in the eye. But I wonder how 
this individual managed when he turned from the pages 
of the satirist to those of the historian — from the satirist 
who sketches character, to the historian who chronicles 
fact — particularly those historians who are somewhat 
microscopic in their revelations, and who bring to light 
the minuter lines of thought and action. Take for in- 
stance Macaulay or Froude. Again and again while 
going leisurely through the latter, and noticing how men 
and women acted three centuries ago — by the way so 
very much like what they do now — have I experienced a 
feeling of sadness that the historian in his accurate glance 
at society should find so much that is crooked and bad- 



i S 4 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



From whence springs this unconcealable, this acknow- 
ledged, this uniform shadiness of human character? 
From training ? From example ? No ; both of these are 
palpably inadequate. We are compelled to go where the 
Bible goes. Christ, the master psychologist, says, " Out 
of the heart proceed * * * the things which defile a 
man." And that which is true of ungodly character, is 
equally true of godly. The heart is the root power in 
both cases. " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, 
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit/' Heartand 
character stand in the same relation as tree and fruit — the 
one is what the other is, spontaneously, uniformly, essen- 
tially. But you say, " Has the will nothing to do in the 
formation of character ? " It has a great deal to do ; 
character is the immediate product of the will, but then 
the will is conditional, prompted and controlled by the 
heart. Let the will of the unrenewed heart desire to do 
something better — let it, prompted by conscience in its 
better mood, protest against the downward tendency, and 
its comparative powerlessness shows where the strength 
of the man lies. " To will is present with me ; but how to 
perform that which is good I find not." Hence Christ 
says, "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, and the 
things which defile a man," shewing that the heart is the 
central force of the man, and dominates over his entire 
being. And could that which is mere surfaceism be re- 
moved from society, and character be mentally dissected, 
the skilful anatomist would find concealed under a great 
many modifications just two classes, and only two ; the 
one Godward in its tendency, the other worldward ; and 
the state of the heart, renewed or unrenewed, the secret of 
both. How needful the 3000 years old prayer, "Create 



The Custody of the Heart. 



in me a clean heart O God ; and renew a right spirit 
within me." 

2. But again, the hea?'t ought to .be kept, because it is the 
King of the Intellect. We are apt to think of the intellect- 
ual part of man as distinct from, and superior to, his 
emotional— as a region calmer, loftier, and more reliable 
in its action — as a department of the man with which 
truth, and not impulse, has to do. Appeals to the intel- 
lect are regarded as legitimate and proper ; appeals to the 
heart are deemed sensational and unworthy. But is it 
so ? Is this the relative position of the two great forces ? 
I think not ; intellect, so far from being distinct from, and 
superior to, the heart, is in many of its most important 
acts the very opposite —dependent upon, and controlled 
by it. What is some times called free thought, and ex- 
ulted in as such, is in many respects anything but free — 
it is the servile interpreter and mouthpiece of the heart — 
a mere telegraphic machine played upon by the fingers of 
the subtle operator within. The Bible does not say, " as 
a man thinketh" in his intellect "so is he," but, with a 
profounder knowledge of human nature, its deliverance is, 
" as a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Christ, who 
knew what was in man, said, " Out of the heart proceed 
evil thoughts." The heart is not the seat of thought — 
that is the province of the intellect — but the intellect as a 
vassal, subject to a superior power, thinks as the heart 
dictates. We have a most pertinent illustration of this 
given us by Dr. Nelson in his work on Infidelity. A 
young man inquired of him what authors on the evidences 
of Christianity he chiefly recommended. The doctor said 
to him, " I have a choice, but it is not so marked as to 
fix on any given volumes indispensably. He told me 



156 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



that he should read six or eight of the first books I should 
send him, and the Bible afterwards, with an approved 
commentary. The following are, as nearly as I can re- 
member, the books which I obtained and sent or carried 
to him, one as soon as he had finished the other : — 
Alexander's Evidences, Paley's Evidences, Watson's An- 
swer to Paine, Jews' Letter to Voltaire, Horner's Intro- 
duction, Vol. I., and Faber's Difficulties of Infidelity. 
Before he was entirely through with these books, he told 
me that he had something to say of himself that was in- 
deed singular. 6 I am/ said he, 6 in a strange condition. 
I will confess to you frankly and honestly that these 
authors have not answered and fairly overturned every 
difficulty and every objection which I had mustered 
and opposed to the Bible as being from God. Further- 
more, I do acknowledge that I have found arguments in 
favour of its Divine authority so plain and so momentous 
that I am unable to meet or to answer them, and yet / do 
not believe the Bible, — I cannot, and / do not, believe the 
Bible' " How was this ? Why could he not believe the 
Bible ? Was not his intellect convinced ? Did he not 
find the arguments unanswerable and conclusive ? Then 
why could he not believe the Bible ? Because the heart, 
in its perversity and simple dislike, asserted its lordship, 
and refused to be accessible to the plainest evidence. 
The intellect thought one way, the heart thought another ; 
and as the heart, on that question, was king — the controll- 
ing power of the man — so as he thought \n his heart w T as he. 

This simple fact contains a principle of luminous but 
solemn import. It explains a great deal that would 
otherwise be perplexing. A captain of a ship was once 
seriously out in his reckoning — he found himself many 



The Custody of the Heart. 



157 



leagues astray, and had he not discovered his mistake the 
consequences might have been fearful. But the question 
with him was, how was it that he got astray. His observ- 
ations were good, and his calculations, so far as he could 
see, faultless. He was painfully perplexed. What hap- 
pened once might happen again. Where was the error ? 
And it was only after the most careful investigation that, 
to his surprise, but belief, he found that a piece of iron 
had been accidently placed so near the ship's compass as 
to disturb its action, and falsify its indications. The 
compass of the ship had lost truth. And in no other way 
than this can I account for the intellectual blunders of 
men otherwise eminent. Pantheism, Positivism, Dar- 
winism, and other shades of rationalistic thought, may be 
traced in the main to the kingship of a perverted heart. 
The heart dislikes the idea of a God, and forthwith the 
intellect tries to make it out that there is no such a being. 

" Do you believe in God ? " said recently the corres- 
pondent of the London Times to an eminent Communist 
in Paris. " No." " Why ? 99 " Because it is not Repub- 
lican. It would be one man power. If there were such 
a place as Heaven, and I went there and found a God, I 
would immediately commence throwing up barricades ; I 
would hoist the red flag ; I would rebel." That is a bad 
heart raving the grossest Atheism. 

In others, where the idea of a God is disliked, but who 
are not atheistically communistic, the intellect tries to 
shut Him out of the universe in a more subtle way, and 
labours to account for the existence of everything without 
Him. The highest form of life, they say, is only a de- 
velopment of a lower form, and that again of one still 
more rudimentary — all living organisms sprung originally 



158 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



from a piece of jelly, called a protoplasm. This is a bad 
heart talking philosophy and vain deceit. 

Others again, like the eminent scientist who occupied 
the chair of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science during its Edinbro' sessions, and who cannot 
deny the existence and evidences of a God, nevertheless 
remove Him as far away from the world as possible, and 
tell us very gravely that all earth's life has proceeded from 
seed-bearing meteoric stones, which have casually, in 
some remote age, struck this planet from some other 
planet. Ah ! intellect, though clothed in royal robes, is 
a poor thing when a deceived heart holds the sceptre. 
You have seen a paper wheel placed over a heated stove, 
and a paper man, wonderfully life-like, busily engaged in 
turning it round ; but it is not the man that moves the 
wheel, but the wheel that moves the man. So, the intel- 
lect, with its coat off and its brow bathed in perspiration, 
may seem as if it swayed the heart, but under the subtle 
imperial influence of the latter, the former is, on many 
questions, as perfect an automaton as a paper man who 
moves just as he is moved upon. The heart is the real 
seat of power, whether the face of the man is upward or 
downward — -heavenward or earthward. 

3. But again, the heart is the Controller of Action. As 
a rule, what it speaks is done — what it commands, the 
man obeys. The poet Southey tells us that in his irre- 
ligious college days he hated the bell which announced 
the hour of worship. And why did he hate the bell? 
Not because it was a bell, but because it was a worship 
bell — a bell that talked about the Bible and sin, and 
Christ and death and eternity, and therefore he hated 
what might otherwise have been agreeable. Another poet, 



The Custody of the Heart, 



159 



who occupied a social position far higher than the one to 
which Southey was subsequently elevated, being not a 
poet laureate but a poet king — who flourished some years 
before Southey was born, and whose heart had acquired 
new tastes and new leanings — was summoned to public 
worship, not by a bell, but by a living human voice, and 
while the former poet hated the summons, the latter 
hailed it "I was glad when they said unto me, come 
let us go up unto the house of the Lord." And what was 
it that made the difference in each case ? Simply the 
state of the heart, And this aversion in the one case, 
and delight in the other, as far as circumstances permitted, 
determined the action. 

Now then, let us take a test of another kind, and in- 
stead of the worship of God let us take a modern pleasure 
party, with its dance, and music, and flutter and gaiety. 
The invitation is given — say two young men are invited to 
be present. The one accepts, the other declines. Both 
are professedly religious young men, and both wish event - 
ually to gain eternal life. What constitutes in this case the 
dividing line ? What is it that turns the face of one down- 
ward toward Sodom, the other upward toward Zoar ? Sim- 
ply the state of the heart. The heart, in the one case, is un- 
changed — clings to the pleasures of sin/and refuses to see 
any harm in a promiscuous dancing party — the heart in 
the other is tremulous with the sympathetic love of Jesus, 
and shrinks instinctively from the torpedo touch of evil, 
however glowing and plausible its aspect. The heart in 
each case is a gulf stream , but while the stream in the one 
is silently tending to death and night, bearing its posses- 
sor almost unconsciously along with it, the great forces of 
the other are floating onward to life and day. 



160 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



4. But again, the heart is the determiner of destiny. Death 
has no purifying power. Death does not transform the 
man. It simply w sends him on to eternity to be for ever 
what he has been here. The state of the heart in time 
absolutely determines the position of the man in eternity. 
If death finds the heart holy, nothing that follows will de- 
teriorate it — if death finds the heart filthy, nothing that 
follows will purify it. In time, and in time only, the heart 
weaves the web of immortal weal or immortal woe. 
66 Keep thy heart with all diligence." Why? Let the 
weighty answer be pondered : " for out of it are the 
issues " or goings forth " of life." 

A report of a somewhat singular discussion was put into 
my hands la tely. It took place in Boston, in the parlour of a 
certain lady, and was conducted by a select number of the 
freethinking literati of that city. The subject was, the 
function of the heart in religion, and a more pitiable ex- 
hibition of darkening counsel by words with knowledge, 
it has rarely been my lot to meet with. The heart was 
made the seat of something like poetic sensibility, of which 
some people may have naturally a great deal, and others 
none. Religion, whatever they meant by it, was a thing 
completely outside the heart. The great function of the 
heart, or the seat and centre of love to Jesus, or repug- 
nance to Him, was completely ignored — a function that 
in the hour of death and day of judgment will determine 
the destiny of the man. The heart in which the love of 
Christ burns brightly, is the ready virgin who passes 
through the open door into the marriage feast ; but the 
heart cold and estranged from Christ is the foolish one, 
who finds the door irrevocably shut, and in answer to 
whose appeal, the solemn voice is heard, " I know not 
whence ye are." 



The Custody of the Heart. 1 6 1 

Why keep the heart 2 A fourfold reason has been given. 
The heart is the fountain of character, the king of the in- 
tellect, the controller of action, and the determiner of des- 
tiny, " out of it are the issues " or goings forth " of life." 
As the thermometer and the temperature agree, so do the 
heart and the man. The one in reality is an exact coun- 
terpart of the other. As the heart is now, so the man is 
in the eye of God, good or bad — as the heart is when 
the body dies, so will the man be forever, right or wrong, 
happy or miserable, to eternity. 

II. Our second question is one in which we have 

A DEEP PRACTICAL INTEREST. HOW KEEP IT ? 

How is this imperial function to be kept ? What can 
we do with a power so subtle, so persuasive, and so con- 
trolling ? The literal rendering of the word " keep " will 
help us. This word in the Hebrew has a threefold shade 
of meaning. To keep means first, to put it in a safe place ; 
second, to watch ; third, to defend — three thoughts very 
suggestive. 

i . First, then, put the heart in a safe place. As the 
planetary system was put in a safe place, when the Al- 
mighty and All-wise-One surrounded it by the well bal- 
anced forces of attraction and repulsion, and said to it 
by the gentle might of law, " so far shalt thou go, but no 
further." Or as the motion of a watch is put in a safe 
place when properly regulated and balanced by spring 
and wheel and pin. If a watch keeps improper time it is 
not only useless but misleading. To keep it, is to place 
it in a proper condition for doing its work. Or as a steam- 
engine is put in a safe place when the whole of its parts 
are as harmoniously perfect as science can make them, 
and under the controlling hand of one skilful and discreet. 

K 



162 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

A steam-engine without proper control may be an element 
of fearful mischief. To " keep " the heart is to have the 
whole of its powerful action properly regulated and under 
fitting sway. 

Its natural condition is an unsafe one. Its functions 
and forces are obedient to the hand of a usurper. This 
usurper is " the prince of the power of the air"—" the 
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." 
This spirit of evil controls the energies and marshals the 
forces of the heart with a masterly and fiendish power ; 
and this he does with such profound subtlety, that the 
subject of his sway fancies itself in its volitions and move- 
ments as free as the air. 

Into whose hands then shall we commit the custody of 
this usurped domain — where is the safe place into which 
we may put. it ? One perfectly competent supplies the 
answer. " My son give Me thine heart." We know 
whose voice that is. With the tenderness of a father He 
asks for that which He has a right to claim. As much as 
if He had said : " Thine heart is bad in itself and is in bad 
hands. A usurper sways it. It is restless, discontented 
and occasionally full of remorse. Now and then dost 
thou attempt to regulate it, but without success. The 
downward inclination is too strong, and the sway of the 
usurper too masterly. Give Me thine heart I will for- 
give its sin — I will break its yoke — I will cleanse its im- 
purities — I will make it what it has never yet been, peace- 
ful, radiant, and a never-failing fountain of benediction 
and love. Give Me thine heart." 

Ah ! my brother, never will thy heart and mine find 
their true orbit until they swing through the clear and 
healthy atmosphere of duty under the inspiration of the 



The Custody of the Heart. 



163 



cross. The only safe place for the heart of man is inside 
the heart of Jesus, and the only safe controlling power is 
for Jesus to be inside the man. Brother, bring your heart 
to Jesus. Bathe it with the light of the cross. Purify it 
with the blood of the cross. Let the sweet influences of 
Divine love harmoniously impel and restrain it. 

" A heart in every thought renewed, 
And full of love divine, 
Perfect and right and pure and good, 
A copy, Lord, of Thine. " 

2. Not only put it in a safe place, but watch it— watch it 
with a loving and prayerful eye. It not only needs to be 
put into a safe position, but kept there. It is fallible; 
liable to err ; in danger of faltering in its allegiance. 
Constant cultivation only will keep it covered with the 
flower and fruit of a charming, beauteous life. The steady 
hand and watchful eye of Christian diligence are needful 
to keep it in harmony with the cross. An old man with 
whom I was conversing, while travelling in a remote part 
of the Province of Quebec, on the necessity of giving the 
heart to Christ, unconsciously uttered a weighty truth 
when he said: " I do give my heart to Christ but it comes 
back to me again." The heart was put at the foot of the 
cross, but the hand that put it there grew weary in well- 
doing. Diligently " keep " the heart. Let not the spirit 
of indolence or error damage its relationship to Jesus. 

3. But, finally, defend the heart — defend it self-denyingly 
and vigorously against all injurious influences. Enemies 
swarm around it — foes, bitter, powerful and determined. 
As the patriotic advisers of a nation defend its interests 
and maintain its honour, and suffer no hostile hand to 



164 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



touch the ark of national integrity and freedom — as the 
man of business defends his character and shields his in- 
terests against fraud or misfortune, so the heart, that na- 
tion in miniature, that essence of character, must be ubi- 
quitously defended. The kings of Media built in the 
northern part of the empire a treasure city called Ecbatana, 
surrounded by seven circles of walls, strongly fortified, 
the battlement of each circle rising higher than the one out- 
side of it. The top of the first, or outermost circle, was 
painted white, the next black, the third scarlet, the fourth 
blue, the fifth orange, the two last were coated respectively 
with silver and gold. Inside the wall that was coated 
with gold were the palace and the treasure house. Ene- 
mies might gaze upon this Median Ecbatana, and while 
stricken with its beauty they were awed with its impregna- 
bleness. So let it be with the Ecbatana of the heart — 
battlement it with a sevenfold circle of defence — let each 
circle be broader and grander than the one outside of it, 
and let the innermost circle be coated with the fine gold 
of all prayer, glistening with the rays of the Sun of Right- 
eousness, a terror to evil-doers, but a thing of beauty to 
good men and angels. " Keep thy heart/* or as the 
margin reads, above all keeping " keep thy heart "—as 
something infinitely more precious than the treasure- 
house of kings. ' 

Is then " thine heart right?" Let that be our first 
acquirement. Let us bring it to Christ. Let the cleans- 
ing blood be applied by faith. A decent church man- 
nerism — a certain amount of creditable perfunctory reli- 
gious routine we may have, but what humanity and the 
church need, are the mighty, transforming pulsations of 
millions of pure hearts. If the heart is faint with sin, the 



The Custody of the Heart. 



head will be sick with error, and the conduct smitten with 
infirmity and defeat. If David had kept his heart, the 
two great sins of his life would never have darkened his 
character. If Achan had kept his heart, the wedge of gold 
and the Babylonish garment would have had no fascina- 
tion for him. If Demas had kept his heart, he would not 
have forsaken the companionship of Paul and the service 
of Christ, for the silver mire of the world and its atmos- 
phere of death. And if the millions now professedly 
Christian, who are doing next to nothing for Christ, had 
felt the joy and power of a heart abidingly clean, the sub- 
jugation of the world to the Saviour would be only mea- 
sureably distant. Incomparably the most germinant 
thought that I can leave with you is, first, a pure heart \ and 
second, the maintenance of that purity, in all its evan- 
gelizing integrity, until the work of earth shall be exchanged 
for the rest of heaven. 



CHRIST OUR PASSOVER. 



SERMON IX. 

By REV. W. S. BLACKSTOCK. 

" Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as 
ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us : 
therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the 
leaven of malice and wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of 
sincerity and truth. "—I Cor. v. 7, 8. 

HE doctrine of the atonement occupies a cen- 
tral and fundamental position in Christian 
theology. The cross is the central point toward 
which every one of the lines of inspired truth 
converges, and in which they all centre. From 
the first sacrifice offered by Adam at the gate 
of Eden immediately after his expulsion from the garden, 
to the morning sacrifice offered the day that the Redeemer 
died, every victim appointed to bleed was a silent witness 
to the truth that without the shedding of blood there 
could be no remission of sin. Each in its turn uttered a 
prophecy of the Lamb of God who in the fulness of time 
was to appear, and to suffer and die to take away the 




Christ our Passover. 



167 



sins of the world. Each of these sacrifices was a type of 
Him who was predestinated to bear our griefs and carry 
our sorrows \ to be wounded for our transgressions 
and bruised for our iniquities ; to bear the chastisement 
of our peace ; and to receive those stripes by which we 
are healed. In every sin-offering under the law, He was 
typically represented and set forth, who, though He knew 
no sin — was, in fact, sinless, unsinning, and incapable of 
sin — was made a sin-offering for us, and, as such, " suf- 
ered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to 
God," " in whom we have redemption through His blood, 
the forgiveness of sins." 

Some of these types were more striking and impressive 
than others, but among them all there was none more so 
than the paschal lamb, referred to by the Apostle, and in 
allusion to which Christ is called " our passover." The 
whole ceremony of the offering of this sacrifice was strik- 
ingly symbolical and prophetic, not only of the atone- 
ment, but also of all the associated doctrines of Christi- 
anity. Like the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, which has 
taken its place, it was a visible embodiment of all the 
peculiar and distinctive doctrines of revealed religion ; a 
silent but impressive exhibition of the wondrous scheme 
of human redemption, in which the central figure was 
Christ — Christ crucified, Christ suffering, bleeding, dying, 
that we might not perish, but have everlasting life. 

The paschal feast is done away ; it has given place to 
the Christian Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, an ordinance 
equally appropriate and impressive as a visible represent- 
ation of the great central truths of our holy religion ; but 
the truth which was made visible in the passover will 
never die. There was in it a prophecy of an event the 



1 68 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

most stupendous in the history of the world ; an event 
which was probably the sublimest exhibition ever made, 
or that ever will be made of the justice, wisdom and love 
of God ; an event which constitutes the goal of human 
history, in which all the interests of the ages centre, and 
upon which the hopes of all the generations of mankind 
rest. That prophecy has been fulfilled. That event has 
actually taken place. That to which the Passover taught 
and encouraged the Hebrew worshippers to look forward, 
as an object of hope, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
teaches us to look back to as an accomplished fact ; what 
was prophecy to him, is history to us ; and what he saw as 
through a glass darkly — knowing in part and prophecying 
in part^ — having some dim perception of the thing itself, 
but only guessing darkly at the manner of its accomplish- 
ment, it is our precious privilege to contemplate as a 
finished transaction, which, in all its details, stands out 
clearly and distinctly on the illuminated page of inspired 
history for us to study it at our leisure. 

The central truth of the verses which I have read as a 
text is expressed in these three words, " Christ our Pass- 
over and if I have not mistaken its import, it is not 
only the central truth of this particular passage, but of the 
whole Christian system. It is one of those subjects which 
it becomes us to approach with the deepest reverence, 
humbly invoking the aid of the Eternal Spirit that we may 
be divinely guided in our meditations, and that the 
truths which are wrapped up in it may not only find an 
entrance to our understandings but to our hearts. 

To understand this subject fully, it will be necessary 
for us to briefly advert to the origin and nature of the 
Passover. Its institution was connected with one of the 



Christ our Passover. 



169 



most solemn passages in the strange and eventful history 
of the Hebrew people. Of that marvellous succession of 
wonderful interpositions of divine power and grace by 
which Egyptian pride was humbled, the iron yoke of the 
oppressor was broken, and enslaved Israel was set free, 
the most appalling was reserved for the last. Each suc- 
cessive blow inflicted upon the Egyptians and their idol- 
atrous system was more terrible than that which preced- 
ed it; at eLch successive stroke of the rod of the Al- 
mighty their misery was increased, and their humiliation 
became more complete ; but the last plague which they 
brought upon themselves by their obstinacy and rebellion 
filled up the cup of trembling put into their hands, and 
literally filled the whole land with " lamentation, mourning 
and woe f when, in a single night, all the first-born of 
Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat upon his 
throne, to the first-born of the maid-servant behind the 
mill, and the first-born of beasts, were destroyed by the 
avenging stroke of the Almighty. 

As if to heighten the horror of the occasion, the time 
selected was night. There have been many sad nights in 
the history of our race, in which tragedies so appalling 
have taken place that the contemplation of them almost 
causes the blood to curdle in one's veins ; but certainly 
there never was a night in the history of any individual, 
nation or people so replete with horror as that was to the 
Egyptians. The sun, it is probable, went down that 
evening with its accustomed brightness, and as its last 
rays lingered upon pyramid and palace, upon tower and 
temple, little did the thousands who gazed with admiration 
upon the dazzling splendour suppose that before his return- 
ing beams gilded the eastern sky, and opened the eye of 



170 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the morning, an event would have taken place which would 
have carried terror into every Egyptian home and every 
Egyptian heart. All was calm and still. The majestic 
Nile rolled on with its wonted regularity in its accustom- 
ed course. No evil omen appeared in earth or sky. 
Nothing in nature gave any indication of approaching 
change. The millions of the land, no doubt, retired to 
rest with their accustomed feeling of security, and proba- 
bly during the earlier watches of the night they slept as 
soundly, and their rest was as calm and refreshing as it 
had ever been. But notwithstanding this deceitful calm, 
and the false security which it inspired, the angel of death 
had received his commission, and, with dark and sullen 
wing outspread, hovered over the guilty and doomed peo- 
ple, ready to strike a blow which was to pierce every 
heart through and through with the keenest anguish, and 
to lay the pride and glory of every family in the dust. An 
act of vengeance was to be executed which was never to 
perish from the pages of human history, and was to be a 
witness to all ages of the terrible majesty of God, and of 
His severity as an avenger of sin. 

But that night the dwellings of the enslaved Hebrews 
presented a novel and singular appearance. A transaction 
was taking place in each of them which could scarcely 
fail to attract the attention, and provoke the derision of 
their heathen neighbours ; but which was nevertheless of 
great significance and importance to themselves. In 
each house, except the family was very small, in which 
case it joined with its neighbours, a lamb was killed and 
his blood sprinkled upon the door-posts and lintel, or 
cross-beam over the door. The sprinkled blood was 
the divinely appointed sign and seal of the covenant 



Christ our Passover. 



171 



which the Lord made with them that their first-born 
should not perish with the first-born of Egypt, that the de- 
stroying angel who was commissioned to take vengeance 
upon their oppressors, was not to touch any of them.. 
Every dwelling upon the door-posts and lintel of which 
the blood should be found was to be passed over ; the 
messenger of death was to have no power to hurt any 
one there. How solemn and momentous was this trans- 
action, and what feelings of reverence and awe must it 
have inspired in all the dwellings of Jacob ! 

After the sprinkling of the blood, the lamb was roasted 
and eaten * — roasted whole, " his head, his legs and the 
appurtenances thereof," not a bone of him being broken, 
or any dismemberment or mutilation of him having taken 
place \ — roasted with fire, and the whole of him eaten 
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs \ — eaten as a pil- 
grim's meal, hurriedly, each person standing while he ate, 
having his shoes on, his loins girt, and his staff in his 
hand, as if ready for the march. Now the application of 
all this to " Christ our Passover" is natural and easy. 
The points of resemblance between the type and the anti- 
type, between the paschal lamb and the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world, are too obvious to re- 
quire any special sagacity to discover them, or any special 
ingenuity to point them out. They are too numerous and 
important, however, to be treated fully in a single dis- 
course. Let us therefore rapidly note a few of the more 
striking and important particulars in which the analogy 
may be traced. 

I. Christ is our shelter from impending ruin ; 
He is our shield from the avenging stroke of a 

JUSTLY ANGRY GOD * HlS SACRIFICE IS THAT WHICH. 



172 



The Canadian Methodist JFutpit. 



STANDS BETWEEN US AND THE FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF 

our violation of the Divine law. " In Him," and in 
Him alone, " we have redemption in His blood, the for- 
giveness of sins/ His was the blood without the shed- 
ding of which there could be " no remission." The pro- 
clamation had gone forth, ' 6 The soul that sinneth it shall 
die." The irrevocable word had passed the lip of Jehovah, 
" Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things 
which are written in the book of the law to do them." 
Partial obedience is an impossibility ; " For whosoever 
keepeth the whole law, and yet offendeth in one point, 
is guilty of all." Nothing but an exact and perfect obe- 
dience, complete both in spirit and in act, combining 
purity of motive with purity of action, could meet the re- 
quirement of the divine law, and establish a legal claim 
to the favour and blessing of God, and exemption from 
the bitter consequences of sin. But, without question, 
such an obedience is beyond the reach of any human soul 
since the Fall. In this sense " There is none righteous, 
no, not one f " every mouth is stopped, all the world is 
guilty before God." To the eye of Him who sees the 
end from the beginning, to whom the past and the future, 
with the passing moment, are equally present, every 
human soul, from Adam down to the last of his descend- 
ants who shall ever stand upon the earth, stands forth 
clearly and distinctly condemned as a transgressor ; 
" Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall be no 
flesh justified in His sight." It was this sad and terrible 
state of things which made the atonement a necessity. It 
was to meet this solemn and tremendous exigency that 
God in the infinitude of His compassion and love ' 6 gave 
His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him 



Christ our Passover. 



173 



should not perish, but have everlasting life." It was to 
turn away the vengeful stroke from us, consistently with 
the claims of law and the requirements of justice, that He 
hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in Him ; " whom 
He hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in 
His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission 
of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; to 
declare, I say, at this time the righteousness of God : that 
He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth 
in Jesus." " He is the propitiation for our sins." He, in 
His proper sacrificial character as " the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world," is the only hope set 
before the guilty — the only refuge to which he can fly 
from the vengeance which pursues the transgressor, and in 
which he can find safety. " Neither is there salvation in 
any other : for there is no other name under heaven given 
among men, whereby we must be saved." We are absolute- 
ly shut up to Him as our only way of escape. The destroy- 
ing angel, the executioner of divine wrath, is upon our 
track, and nothing can shield us from the impending blow 
but the " mercy-sprinkling blood." It is the atonement 
alone which stands between us and wrath. It is the 
blessed truth that " God was in Christ reconciling the 
world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconcili- 
ation," which constitutes the only ground of a sinner's 
hope. But we need no other ; " For if the blood of bulls 
and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the un- 
clean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh : how much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal 
spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge our con- 



174 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit 



science from dead works to serve the living God." If the 
typical sacrifice effected a ceremonial purification by 
which the person separated for uncleanness was restored 
to the privilege of approaching God and taking part in 
the services of the tabernacle and temple, how much 
more shall the real sacrifice, of which these were but so 
many shadows, effect that great expurgation, typified by the 
ceremonial purifications under the law ? Or shall the 
shadow exceed the substance, the type hold good, and the 
antitype, from which it derived all its significance, fail ? 
Shall the blood of the paschal lamb, sprinkled upon the 
door-post and lintel, preserve the house of the Hebrew 
from the visit of the destroying angel, and shall the blood 
of Christ fail to secure to those who trust in it that deliv- 
erance of which all the deliverances granted to God's an- 
cient people were but so many types ? Brethren, behold 
the Lamb of God ! Consider the dignity of His person, 
and the greatness of His humiliation ; remember, too, 
that He was the divinely appointed sacrifice for sin, virtu- 
ally slain from the foundation of the world, and accepted 
before it was offered — nay, that it was both offered and 
accepted, in the divine purpose, from eternity ; therefore, 
whether we can or cannot understand the philosophy of 
this great transaction, we have in it the amplest ground 
of encouragement and hope in coming to God for the 
forgiveness of our sins. " Having therefore, brethren, 
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus 
by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us 
through the veil, that is to say, His flesh ; and having a 
high priest over the house of God ; let us draw near with 
a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts 
sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed 
with pure water." 



Christ our Passover. 



175 



2, Christ is the life, the strength, the support of the souls 
of his people. The sacrificing of Himself for us was not 
designed merely to change our relation to God, but to im- 
press upon our souls a new character, and make us the 
partakers of a new life. Sin had not only involved us in 
guilt, brought us under the displeasure of God, and ex- 
posed us to the penalty which divine justice has attached 
to the transgression of the law of God, but it had intro- 
duced disorganization and rain into the soul itself. Just 
as in the case of the body separated from the soul, the 
process of decomposition inevitably follows, and physical 
corruption is the invariable result; so, with the soul 
separated from God, deprived of the principle of vitality, 
and cut off from the source of its life, moral disorganiz- 
ation and spiritual corruption inevitably follow. Hence, 
as in a matter of fact, every human soul, in its isolation 
from Christ, is not only guilty but also depraved ; or, to 
use a theological distinction, it is not only judicially, but 
also spiritually dead. It is not only under condemnation 
and sentence of death, but, so far as the highest life is 
concerned — -the life of God in the soul — it is actually 
dead. The salvation of the soul, therefore, not only in- 
cludes the pardon of sin and the removal of its liability to 
punishment, but also a spiritual resurrection from the dead. 
In both these senses Christ is our life. By him the sentence 
recorded against us is reversed, and we are spiritually 
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. The 
moment we become vitally united to Him by faith we not 
only pass into a new relation but also into a new spiritual 
state ; there is not only now no condemnation, but the 
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes us free from 
the law of sin and death. In that moment we really 



176 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



begin to live. In the instant of the soul's contact with 
Him it passes from death unto life. And as He is our life 
in its inception, so is He in its sustentation, progress, and 
completion ; for He is not only come that we might have 
life, but that we might have it more abundantly; not 
merely that our souls should be quickened into " newness 
of life," but that that life should be sustained, developed, 
matured, and perfected. As it was by receiving Him into 
our hearts by faith that we became the partakers of this 
hidden spiritual life at first, in the very same way is its 
stability and growth to be promoted. He is t( the bread 
of life," that " living bread " which if any man eat he shall 
live forever. As the paschal lamb eaten by the Israelites 
imparted, in a natural way, physical strength to their 
bodies, Christ received by faith imparts spiritual strength 
and supernatural vigour to the soul. He is the head of 
the body, of which every one of His people is a member, 
and from which each of the members has its life. He is 
the true vine, of which each of His people is a branch, and 
from which all the branches draw that vitalizing sap by 
which their life is sustained, and their fruitfulness is pro- 
moted. He is the food of the souls of His people by 
which the waste of every day's wear and tear is repaired, 
its vigour is maintained, and its growth is promoted. His 
spirit in them is the real recuperative force by which the 
vital energy of their spirits is restored, so that, though 
the outward man perish the inward man is renewed day by 
day. What the manna was to the Israelites in the wilder- 
ness, Christ is to His people in all ages ; and the stream 
issuing from the smitten rock which followed them in all 
their journeyings, giving them daily refreshment and 
strengthening, was but a type of that never-failing stream 



Christ our Passover, 



177 



of mercy and blessing which flows to us from Him who 
was " wounded for our transgressions." Without those 
supernatural supplies by which their daily wants were 
met, the Israelites could not have subsisted in the wilder- 
ness ; without those continued miraculous interpositions 
of Divine Providence they would have inevitably perished 
long before they reached the promised land ; and in all 
this their case was typical of ours, and aptly represents 
our absolute and continued dependence upon Christ. 

3. But if we would avail ourselves of either the shielding or 
the life-giving, invigorating and supporting benefit of the Re- 
deemer } s passio/t, there must be on our part a personal appro- 
priation of Him and His merit The presence of the paschal 
lamb, and even the shedding of his blood, were not alone suf- 
ficient for the protection of the Hebrew household, and the 
procurement of the Divine blessing : his blood must be 
sprinkled upon the door-posts and lintel, and his flesh 
must be roasted with fire and eaten with unleavened bread 
and bitter herbs. This was God's covenant with them : 
" The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses 
where you are \ and when I see the blood I will pass over 
you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy 
you, when I smite the land of Egypt." The sprinkled 
blood was, as I have said, the sign and seal of the 
covenant of grace which God made with them. With- 
out this the Hebrews would have shared the same 
fate with the Egyptians ; not one of their dwellings would 
have been passed over, but the angel of destruction would 
have just as certainly executed his sanguinary commission 
upon the one as the other. Doubtless to many a scepti- 
cal heart that night unbelief whispered, as it often whispers 
to us, respecting matters appointed by God but which we 

L 



178 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



do not fully understand, " What use ? }> But to all such 
sceptical and presumptuous questioning there was this one 
sufficient answer : God hath required it. They were not 
saved by their understanding or their reason, but by their 
faith. Their confidence in God produced in them child-like 
submission to His authority and obedience to His com- 
mandments ; and the result was that though they dwelt 
literally in the region and shadow of death, they were safe. 
Brethren, these things were written for our learning. 
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. God Himself 
has provided the lamb without blemish in the person of 
Him who was " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate 
from sinners." Him, " being delivered by the determinate 
counsel and foreknowledge of God, His enemies have 
taken with wicked hands and crucified and slain." The 
expiatory sacrifice has been offered and the satisfaction is 
complete. But all this will avail us nothing except our 
own individual souls are brought into personal contact 
with the atonement by faith — " God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 

BELIEVETH IN HlM SHOULD NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVER- 
LASTING life ;" but " he that believeth not, is condemned 
already," and will just as certainly perish as if the ransom 
had not been paid. " To him that worketh not but be- 
lieveth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
counted to him for righteousness ; " but he that believeth 
not is involved in guilt and condemnation, and if he con- 
tinues in his unbelief will be inevitably and eternally lost. 
Faith is the receptive faculty of the soul, and the alterna- 
tive presented to each of us is nothing more or less than 
this, Receive Christ and live, reject Him and die. There 
must, therefore, be upon the part of every one who would 



Christ our Passover. 



179 



be made a partaker of the benefits of the Redeemer's 
passion such a belief of the truth, by the power of the 
Spirit of God, as is implied in a penitent renunciation 
of sin, the absolute and irrevocable submission to the will 
of God, the abandonment of every other ground of hope, 
and the transference of the soul's undivided confidence 
to Him who is the propitiation for our sins, a personal 
closing with Christ on the terms of the Gospel, the em- 
bracement of Him as " the Lord our righteousness," and 
the confident recumbency of the soul upon Him as the 
all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and the highest expression 
of His Father's love. Faith is the assimilating faculty by 
which Christ is taken up into the soul in such a way as to 
become its nourishment, its strength, its support, its life. 
It is by the exercise of this grace, that the believer feeds 
upon Christ daily in his heart with thanksgiving; and his 
whole life and being becomes so united to Him and 
blended with him, that, with a full realization of the deep 
meaning of the words which he employs, he can say, " I 
am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, 
but Christ liveth in me \ and the life which I now live in 
the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me 
and gave Himself for me." 

But, brethren, before this blessed experience can 
be obtained, Christ must be received in His entirety, 
without dismemberment or mutilation. Not a bone of 
Him must be broken. He must be received in 
all His offices, as our prophet, our priest, and our king • 
He must be accepted in His humiliation as well as in 
His exaltation, on the cross as well as upon the throne ; 
as the rejected of men, the man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief, as well as the Jehovah Christ, worshipped by 



i So The Cajtadian Methodist Pulpit. 

all the angels of God, and invested with the glory of uni- 
versal dominion, the " King of kings and the Lord of 
lords." 

4. If we would appropriate the saving merit of Christ's 
death we must receive Him in the spirit of penitential self 
renunciatio?i, accepting the sacrifice, the service, and the suf- 
fering, as well as the benefits and blessings which are inse- 
parable from union with Him in this world. The paschal 
lamb must be eaten with the bitter herbs. The Saviour 
must be accepted with whatever of bitterness there 
may be connected with the experience and lot of 
the believer on earth. He has Himself prescribed the 
terms upon which we may be His disciples : " If any 
man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take 
up his cross and follow me." Christ never yet became 
the Saviour of an impenitent soul, or of one who refused 
to accept Him with His yoke, His burden, and His cross. 
The stern necessity of repentance meets us at the very 
threshold of the Christian life. We must have real 
poverty of spirit before we can be made the partakers of 
the true riches. It is only to them who mourn on account 
of their sins, and their estrangement from God, that the 
promise is made that they shall be comforted. It is only 
to those who painfully feel their emptiness of all that is 
good, and who hunger and thirst after righteousness, that 
the promise is made that they shall be filled. It is to the 
meek, those whose chastened souls are brought down into 
the dust, and who, in the humility, docility, and gentle- 
ness which result from a complete realization of their igno- 
rance, weakness, poverty, and dependance, are prepared 
to submit themselves implicitly to Him, and follow Him 
with a child-like faith, that Christ regards Himself as being 



Christ our Passover. 



181 



speciallyanointed to preach good tidings, and to whom He 
makes that glorious promise which doubtless is to be taken 
in its most spiritual, its divinest sense, that "they shall 
inherit the earth/' That there are bitter experiences con- 
nected with His service He has never sought to conceal 
from us ; but on the contrary He hath Himself suffered, 
leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. 
It is true we have the amplest assurance of comfort and 
support in our sufferings, and a happy issue out of them 
at last ; nay more, that they will turn out to be the most 
precious privileges, the richest blessings — an important 
part of that " all things " which work together for our 
good, working for us "a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory;'' but still the fact remains that we must 
suffer with Him if we would be glorified together. If 
there be no cross there will be no crown. The martyr 
spirit is the spirit of our faith. " The central principle of 
our religion is self-sacrifice ; and its perpetual symbol is 
a cross." 

5. Again, if we would avail ourselves of the benefits of 
the Redeemer's passion by an appropriating faith, there must 
be upon our part a sincere, conscientious, and thorough 
putting away of sin. He does not save His people in but 
from their sins ; and an essential part of that repentance 
which may be regarded as the very first step in a religious 
life consists in the renunciation of sin. " Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts/' 
Without this no man has a right to expect mercy at the 
hand of God. It is true, " By grace are ye saved through 
faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God ; " 
but this grace is not given to any who are not made will- 
ing to part with their sins. Every truly penitent person 



l82 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



has placed himself in antagonism to sin, and has, so far as 
his present feelings and intentions are concerned, entered 
upon a life-long struggle against it in all its forms. Upon 
this point we cannot be too jealous of ourselves. No 
quarter must be given to sin. It must neither be allowed 
in our heart, nor in our lives. A relentless war must be 
waged against it whatever may be the shape it assumes ; 
and no sacrifice on our part must be considered too great 
in order to get rid of it. If the right eye cause us to 
offend we must pluck it out, if the right hand be the offend- 
ing member it must be cut off. However pleasant or 
profitable a habit may be, even though it should be pleas- 
ing to us as the light of the eye, or profitable as the 
" cunning " of the right hand, if it is offensive to God and 
repugnant to the teaching of His word, it must be 
promptly and unconditionally abandoned. " Purge out 
therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as 
ye are unleavened." Old principles and old practices, 
old feelings and old associations, all that belongs to the 
old sinful state must be resolutely put away. Jews were 
scrupulously exact in putting leaven away from their dwell- 
ings at the time of the passover ; and the reason of their 
exactness was founded upon the fact that " a little leaven 
leaveneth the whole lump." The smallest particle of lea- 
ven rendered the bread unfit for the paschal feast ; and, 
owing to its diffusive quality a little leaven soon imparted 
its properties to a great mass. In both these respects 
leaven may be regarded as a type of sin. 

The smallest degree of sinfulness willingly harboured 
in the heart renders it unfit for the reception of Christ, 
and taints and corrupts the whole life. God hates sin ; 
there is in His nature an implacable antipathy to it ; His 



Christ our Passover. 



183 



holiness, which is His very life, the essential perfection of 
His character, and the glory of His being, makes it im- 
possible that He should ever regard it otherwise than with 
abhorrence. He sent His Son into the world to save us 
from our sins ; His blood was shed upon the cross that 
we might be cleansed from all sin ; and He is ready to 
not only destroy the power and abolish the reign of sin, 
but also to extirpate the very principle of it from our 
hearts ; but He certainly will not spare us if we form an 
alliance with it. We must therefore make up our minds 
either to one side or the other of the alternative, to either 
part with sin or part with the Saviour. We have to choose 
between sin and damnation, on one hand, and Christ and 
salvation, on the other. It is true the argument in the 
chapter from which the text is taken was originally directed 
against that laxity of discipline by which notorious trans- 
gressors, whose scandalous lives were a disgrace to the 
Christian name, were allowed to remain in the Corinthian 
Church, but it applies with equal force to that looseness 
of personal discipline by which sin is harboured in our 
individual hearts and lives ; it is no less applicable to the 
Church distributively than to the Church collectively con- 
sidered ; for if holiness is to be the distinctive peculiarity 
of the body, it must be the distinguishing characteristic of 
the members. " Let not sin, therefore, reign in your 
mortal body that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. 
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unright- 
eousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those 
who are alive from the dead, and your members as in- 
struments of righteousness unto God." 

6. Another general observation suggested by this sub- 
ject, and the last I shall mention, is, If we would receive 



184 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit 



Christ in such a way as to avail ourselves of His saving 
benefits, we must receive Him in the spirit of prompt and 
unquestioning obedience. We must hold ourselves in readi- 
ness to do or to dare whatever may be enjoined upon us 
by our divine Master, the Captain of our salvation. If 
we have taken Christ's yoke it is that we may work in it ; 
if we have taken His burden it is that we may bear it ; if 
we have taken His cross it is not only that we may carry 
it, but, if needs be, that we may be lifted up upon it. The 
manner in which the Israelites were commanded to eat 
the passover is eminently suggestive. It was a pilgrim's 
meal. It could scarcely fail to remind them that that was 
not their rest. They did not even sit down to it. They 
stood with their loins girt, as if ready for immediate action; 
and with their shoes on, and their staves in their hands, as if 
they were ready for the march. Brethren, we are strangers 
and pilgrims, as all our fathers were. This is not our rest. 
Here we are called to work and to war, to do or to die, 
as the Lord may appoint. " None of us liveth unto him- 
self, and no man dieth unto himself ; but whether we live 
we live unto the Lord, or whether we die we die unto the 
Lord : whether living or dying we are the Lord's." The 
hurried manner in which the paschal lamb was commanded 
to be eaten was not without its significance. It seems to 
point to the avidity with which we should embrace Christ, 
and to the promptness and eagerness with which we 
should seek to possess ourselves of all the provisions of 
His grace, that being strengthened with might by His 
Spirit, we might be thoroughly furnished and ready for 
whatever His wisdom may see fit to appoint. The He- 
brews ate the passover as if there was not a moment to 
be lost. Brethren, so should we receive Christ. There 



Christ our Passover, 



was a journey before them, and they did not know the 
moment that they would be called to take up the march. 
There is a great journey before us ; we must go the way 
of all the earth ; and we know not the moment when our 
marching orders will arrive. But even before this, proba- 
bly, for most of us there is work to be done. The fields 
are white unto the harvest, and the call for labourers 
comes from every quarter. And the great qualification, 
for working as well as living, is to have our souls filled 
with the spirit of our Master. 

Brethren, behold the Lamb of God ! 



BATTLE FOR THE GOSPEL FAITH, THE 
DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



SERMON X. 

By REV. J. GRAHAM, Goderich. 

4 'Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for 
the faith of the gospel ; And in nothing terrified by your adversaries. 
Phil. i. 27, 28. 

HE Bible enlarges the range of human know- 
ledge. Without it we could have known 
nothing of the existence or condition of other 
intellectual beings besides the human. It in- 
forms us that God created angelic spirits. 
Like all Divine creations, they were good, 
peaceful, and happy. These morning stars of 
creation once sang together ; these sons of God shouted 
for joy. But it did not continue. Sin and strife arose 
among them. Some of them kept not their first estate, 
and are now reserved under chains of darkness unto the 
judgment of the great day. But though strife commenced 
among those higher intelligences, it did not stop 
there. We have to gaze upon sin in another sphere. 




Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 



i8 7 



The Bible opens with two of the most important facts 
ever communicated to the human mind — God and His 
creation. These were not discovered, but revealed. At 
the conclusion of the first chapter of Genesis we have God 
surveying His work, and leaving, not only on man, but on 
" everything that He had made," the impress of " very 
good/' Eden was man's home. It was a scene where 
peace reigned, and plenty smiled. But how soon changed ? 
The originator of strife in another sphere now plies his 
infernal arts here. Man sinned, peace fled, and strife 
arose; the conflict still proceeds — the end is not yet. 
The statement of the fall may be doubted, but the facts 
of human history correspond with it, and the spheres of 
animate and inanimate nature seem adapted to it. Earth 
has been, and still is, a scene of strife. The animal sphere 
and inorganic elements seem calculated to remind us of 
the conditions of our earthly probation. There is storm 
and calm, sunshine and cloud, the sweet zephyr and the 
blighting sirocco. There is a struggle for life among the 
animal tribes. They must devour one another. We can- 
not take a mouthful of food, or draw a breath, without 
producing death. I do not assert that Adam's sin pro- 
duced this state of things, either by natural consequence 
or judicial penalty ; but it does not seem as if this world 
was fitted to be a home for an innocent race, though it 
seems well fitted for the training of such probationary 
beings as we are, for a future peaceful world, where 

" We shall lay our armour by, 
And dwell with Christ at home.' , 

When we move from the animal into the mental sphere, 
there we find strife fiercest. Look at man politically. 



1 88 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit 



Has peace reigned there ? No. In all ages nearly, 
nations are baptized in blood. And in the most Christian 
and civilized nations of the globe to-day, the national 
revenue is liberally voted, and universal genius taxed, in 
order to provide and construct the most destructive 
weapons of war. What a scene of strife is presented in 
the history of mental speculation ! From Thales to 
Hegel, the course of philosophy presents theory in con- 
flict with theory. Now over the dizzy heights of Idealism, 
now down in the Serbonian bog of Sensationalism. And 
to-day, philosophy may be fitly represented by the 
" Revelations of Chaos." It is so in the sphere of re- 
ligion. If you want to see the arch-demon of strife and 
his imps holding carnival, glance at the attendants 
around those martyr fires which persecutors have kin- 
dled ; look out on the continual succession of bloody 
wars waged in behalf of religion. In all ages you 
have priest against priest, and God against God, 
marshalled in battle's fierce array. Considering the 
natural phenomena of the world, and the facts of human 
history, we cannot wonder much at the old Greek, who, 
in his speculations on the nature and origin of things, ar- 
rived at the conclusion that strife was " the father of all 
things — gods and men." Now considering the state of 
human society when Christianity was ushered into the 
world, and considering its mission in the world, is it not 
reasonable to suppose that it would be the occasion, though 
not the cause, of additional strife ? True it is, that the 
end contemplated in the gospel is " peace on earth, good 
will towards men." But equally true it is, that in working 
to that end it will be, as it has been, the occasion of strife 
in the world. Its author says : " I came not to send 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 189 



peace on earth, but a sword." Paul understood the 
matter so \ hence his frequent use of military metaphors 
to present the duties of Christian life. Though enlisted 
under the banner of the King of Salem, the hero heart of 
the soldier beat within his bosom. The inspired truth 
takes the battle-form in his heroic soul. He met Nero's 
grim executioner with the exclamation on his sacred lips— 
" I have fought a good fight * * * I have 
kept the faith." In writing to the church at Philippi — ■ 
where he had formerly suffered imprisonment — -he uses the 
words of the text — " stand fast in one spirit, with one 
mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel ; and in 
nothing terrified by your adversaries. " In these words 
he presents the object of Christian strife, and the method 
necessary to success. First, let us notice — - 
I. The object of the strife. 

This is " the faith of the Gospel." This implies all the 
blessings of the Gospel salvation, for all the promises are 
yea and Amen in Christ Jesus to him that believeth. To 
this Gospel there were adversaries in Paul's day, and in 
every day since ; and as Christianity enjoins on its pro- 
fessors the duty of preserving its doctrinal purity against 
those who would corrupt it, and of propagating it against 
those who would oppose it — hence the strife. Judging 
from one stand-point we might be led to conclude that 
the Gospel would never have an adversary. When we 
think that it is light for the world's darkness, life for its 
death, and peace for its strife ; we may wonder at its 
adversaries. But facts show that it has'been, and still is, 
opposed. The adversaries to-day are [numerous," and 
somewhat peculiar. Clothed in all liveries they come 
from all quarters. Decked out with scholastic honours. 



190 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



wearing the coronet of nobility, endorsed by scientific as- 
sociations, and haranguing the promiscuous crowd — they 
come forth, " speaking great swelling words of vanity" 
against the Lord's Anointed. Under every garb they 
resemble " those noxious insects which seem plumed for 
the annoyance of our atmosphere, dangerous alike in their 
torpidity and animation, infesting where they fly and poison- 
ing where they repose." " Soldiers," said a French king 
upon the battle-field, "you are Frenchmen, I am your 
king, there are the enemy — let us march." So Christ 
says to all Christians — you are 'citizens of my kingdom, 
I am your king, there are your adversaries— 

44 To battle all proceed, 
Armed with the unconquerable mind. 
Which was in Christ your Head. " 

The battle forces of to-day are more closely arrayed 
around the Person of Jesus than ever before, and there- 
fore, to this point attention is directed. This is at once 
the source and citadel of Christianity. 

In striving for the faith once delivered to the saints, 
Christ should be enthroned as the supreme authority in the 
whole sphere of Revelation. 

He enjoined the search of the Old Testament Scriptures, 
and declared that they testified of Him. After His res- 
urrection, when expounding those scriptures to His dis- 
ciples, on the way to Emmaus, we are told that " beginning 
at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them 
in all the scriptures, the things concerning Himself" He 
tells them that "all things must be fulfilled, which were 
written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in 
the Psalms concerning me." The Apostles witness to 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 191 

Christ as the Revealer to the Prophets. Peter witnesses 
that it was the Spirit of Christ which was in them that en- 
abled them to " testify beforehand the sufferings of Christ 
and the glory that should, follow." John tells us that 
" the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Paul 
tell us that he did not receive his Gospel from men, but 
" by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Thus Christ's 
authority is stamped upon old and new — it is one Revel- 
ation. Jesus, Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the 
Apostles, must stand or fall together. All must stand, 
for Christ is the source and centre of all. Thus we must 
regard the whole sphere of Revelation as "it is in Jesus." 
The adversaries who impeach Moses to-day, must, by 
consequence, impeach Christ to-morrow — witness the 
case of Colenso. The Christian Church is called to be a 
witness for Jesus, not by witnessing to new revelations 
given, but by preserving the one already given, and by 
earnest effort, in the spirit of Christ, to bring the whole 
world to the obedience of faith. Like the light of the 
sun on the solar system, Christ spreads His endorsation 
over all revelation — let the Church witness to it. 

In striving for the faith we must maintain absolute Deity, 
united with perfect humanity, in the person of Christ. 

Formerly some of the adversaries coarsely blasphemed 
His Divinity ; now their successors would carry it off 
"with a whiff of the Otto of Roses. " Formerly some 
dissolved His humanity by their speculations ; now, 
others give us altogether a "Divine humanity." Both are 
false witnesses. Deny either Divinity or humanity, and 
how do you stand with Isaiah when he testifies of Him as 
" a child born, a Son given and also, as " the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace ? " 



192 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

How do you stand with St. John when he says " the 
Word was God/' and also, that " the Word was made 
flesh?" We are told by John that Jesus was full of 
truth ; but if He was not Divine, idolatry is righteous, or 
Jesus full of falsehood, when He says that " all men 
should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." 
The glorified saints and angels who worship in the light 
of the upper sanctuary, are all represented as " saying 
with a loud voice, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
honour, and glory, and blessing." Are all these idolators ? 
It is the Deity of Christ that gives authority to His teach- 
ing, efficacy to His atonement, and almightiness to His 
intercession. Without it the Bible is a cheat, our faith a 
blind superstition, our hope a deceitful mirage, and our 
churches nothing but shrines of idolatry. But all is 
well. Listen to the song of saints around the throne, 
catch the inspired strain of prophetic rapture, search the 
narratives of evangelists, consult the epistles of Apostles, 
gaze on the visions of the Apocalypse ; and though you 
find them like the wheels of prophetic vision, full of eyes, 
darting their glances in all directions, yet, when all those 
eyes rest on Jesus, they agree in one confession of faith — 
" Lo ! this our God we have waited for Him." To ad- 
mit the scriptures to be a Divine revelation, and yet deny 
the Deity of Christ, exhibits a mournful picture of stupid 
absurdity, married to reckless presumption. Paul's faith 
rested on a Christ in whom was God reconciling the 
world unto Himself \ and because of this, he wrought in 
its behalf with a zeal that never cooled, a courage that 
never quailed, borne upon a wing that never tired. 
Under any other faith the soul seems shrouded in gloom 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 



193 



when it closes with the King of Terrors ; but this disarms 
the tyrant of his power. God and man in Christ, bridging 
over the awful gulf that separated sinful man from a holy 
God, when realized by a living faith, wings the soul into 
the highest latitude of thought, and keeps it there spell- 
bound for ever. It enlarges the heart to the dimensions 
of the race, and fits either for the most heroic deeds, or 
the most intense suffering. 

" Guard this faith with holy care, 
Mystic virtues slumber there : 
'Tis the lamp within the soul, 
Holding genii in control : 
Faith shall walk the stormy water ; 

In the unequal strife prevail ; 
Nor when comes the dread avatar, 
From its fiery splendours quail. 
Faith shall triumph o'er the grave, 
Love shall bless the life it gave." 

In striving for the faith of the Gospel, the integrity of 
Chrisfs mediatorship must be maintained. 

First, as to its unity. Is there one mediator, or many ? 
or are there Jz/^-mediators ? Paul received his Gospel 
from Jesus Christ, and he says : " There is one God and 
one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ 
Jesus." With Paul, the unity of God and the unity 
of Christ's mediatorship measure each other. A system, 
then, that supersedes the only true mediator, by setting 
up others, either as equals or inferiors, in mediation with 
God, bears on its front the mark of Antichrist. Neither 
saints nor angels, living or dead, Pope or priest, is per- 
mitted to intrude here. The priesthood established by 
God previous to the coming of the Great High Priest of 

M 



194 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



our profession, fitly foreshadowed His coming; but in 
Christianity there can be no priesthood. The Romish 
system, which sets up a priest-privileged, close-corpora- 
tion, with special powers to absolve from sin, and rege- 
nerate the soul through their sacramental administration, 
is not Christian. It is a ghastly parody on a Gospel min- 
istry, a pagan substitute for a departed Saviour, and a 
libel on " the Church of the living God, the pillar and the 
ground of truth." All sacerdotalism is spiritual quackery ; 
and like all other quackery its medicine is more to be 
dreaded than the disease. Christianity repudiates the 
monster who erects the throne of his idol over the head 
of a superseded Christ, and who claimsfthe right to feed, 
even with a brother's blood, the cannibal appetite of his 
priestly maw. Charity for its deluded victims, but no 
truce with sacerdotalism anywhere. Against its motley 
host of shams I present to you the one mediator, Christ 
Jesus. But it will be said, perhaps, by some, "we en- 
tirely reject all mediators but the one Christ Jesus." All 
well so far ; but permit me to ask, have you been reconciled 
to God through the mediation of Christ ? Have you ever 
sought reconciliation through Jesus ? What will it avail 
to have protested against the sham if you have not em- 
braced the real ? Religion is not a mere negation of the 
false, it is the possession of the true. Jesus says: "no 
man cometh to the Father but by me." You believe these 
words. But if you have not been reconciled to the Father 
through the Son, you do not know what Jesus means when 
he says : " My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave 
with you." This is the present blessing of Christ's Gos- 
pel. Let the soul feel this, and then all false mediators 
will vanish like the old hags of darkness before the splen- 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 



195 



dour of the Sun of Righteousness. The world will have 
mediators, true or false. We can only banish and keep 
out the false by the possession of the true. What the 
world needs to subdue its proud rationalism, to remove 
its gloomy superstition, and to bind up the devil with an- 
gelic hands, is "peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." Is there a soul here unhappy, and longing for 
peace ? Now fix the eye of faith on your mediator, and 
see 

" Above your black, despairing thoughts, 
Above your fears, above your faults, 
His powerful intercessions rise ; 
And guilt recedes, and terror dies." 

Another view, which interferes with the Gospel view of 
Christ's mediation, is that which denies the expiatory char- 
acter of the atonement. 

This is not like priestly superstition, an error on the 
side of addition, but on the side of subtraction. Many 
now deny that Christ's death had any reference to the 
satisfaction of Divine justice. It was a noble moral act, 
designed to show us that there is " no way of overcoming 
evil but by suffering from it," or " He bore our sins upon 
His sympathetic feeling/' or " He bore our sins by con- 
fessing them to God on our behalf/' This view regards 
the efficacy of Christ's death to consist in God being 
pleased to see the self-sacrifice of Christ for us, and that it 
is a glorious moral power over us by stimulating example ; 
but it totally denies that Christ's death had any relation 
to the satisfaction of Divine justice, in the forgiveness of 
sin. In denying this, it destroys the scriptural doctrine 
of Christ's mediation. Christ cannot mediate between 
an offended God and offending man, if He has not satis- 



196 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



fied Divine justice. Paul's Gospel affirms what the self- 
sacrifice theory denies. Directing both Jew and Gentile 
to what God meant in the death of Christ, he thus speaks : 
" Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the 
remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of 
God ; to declare I say at this time His righteousness ; 
that He might be just, and the justifier of him which 
believeth in Jesus." The man who denies that these 
words teach that Christ's death had any reference to the 
satisfaction of Divine justice, in the forgiveness of sin, 
could not be convinced of the erroneousness of any 
opinion which he may entertain, by scriptural passages. 
This theory of atonement by vicarious feeling and ex- 
ample is called by its abettors the "moral view." Would 
it not be more correctly named by the zmnoral view ? It 
is scarcely moral, in the Christian sense, to theorize, not 
only without, but against, Biblical statements, on such a 
subject as atonement. And most certainly the so-called 
moral view affords no satisfaction, not only to the Divine 
sense of justice, but to man's moral sense of justice. The 
moral view is sometimes called " broad/' in comparison 
with what its abettors call the " orthodox view." Whether 
they understand the orthodox view or not, is not now in- 
quired, but were it not for their own narrow vision, they 
would see that the Biblical view is much broader than 
theirs. It gives all the power of Christ's example of self- 
sacrifice that the moral view does, while it gives to the 
embrace of our faith the expiating Saviour, by whom " we 
have now received the atonement." True, we are exhort- 
ed to be modest on this subject, as " we only know atone- 
ment as a fact, not as a theory." It is sufficient to reply 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 



197 



that the expiatory view of Christ's death is the fact of 
Scripture. The moral view denies it, and therefore takes 
its stand in the ranks of irrational Rationalism. As for 
the exhortation to modesty, it should be always welcome, 
but it is much to be regretted that in this case it has not 
been more correctly applied at home before being sent 
abroad. It would have saved many theologasters from 
presenting to the Christian world the narrowest theory 
ever conceived on the subject, and would have saved 
many more from the /^modesty of contradicting or 
ignoring the fact of Scripture by their theory. The 
Methodist pulpit all over the world pronounces the moral 
view — to say the least — fatally defective. The notes of 
its songs which encircle the world are — 

" Honour for ever to the Lamb 

Who bore our sin, and curse, and pain : 
Let angels bless His sacred name, 
And every creature say, Amen ! " 

If we are to stand fast in the faith of the Gospel, the 
universal availableness of Christ's mediatorship must be 
maintained against the theory of limitation. Whatever 
theory limits the atonement, destroys the availableness of 
mediation, outside of that limit. Christ says — " No man 
cometh to the Father but by Me and Christ can be no 
mediator for any man, for whom He made no atone- 
ment. To limit atonement is to limit mediation. The 
limitation is not in the Gospel revealed by Jesus Christ to 
St. Paul. Writing to Timothy he says : " For this is good 
and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ; who will 
have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge 
of the truth. For there is one, and only one, mediator 



198 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave 
Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 
Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle ; (I 
speak the truth and lie not ;) a teacher of the Gentiles 
in faith and verity. ,; Here it is unmistakably declared 
that the ground work of the apostle's preaching was one 
mediator who gave Himself a "ransom for all." Paul 
would never have been guilty of the stupid absurdity of 
offering salvation to all if he believed that atonement was 
only made for some ; nor would that Christ who is full of 
truth ever have sent him as His ambassador on an embassy 
so full of falsehood. Against those who would supple- 
ment, we maintain the unity ; against those who would dis- 
solve, we maintain the reality ; against those who would 
limit, we maintain the universality of Christ's mediator- 
ship. All theories that interfere with an incarnate Sa- 
viour, an expiatory satisfaction, and a universally avail- 
able mediator, are only things of an hour — hastening 
away. With an eye on them, and on the Christ of 
the Gospel, we may truly say: 

" Such little systems have their day, 
They have their day and cease to be : 
They are but broken lights of thee, 
And thou, O Lord, art more than they." 

These little systems form no part of the Gospel preached 
from the Methodist pulpit. The Methodist missionary 
has belted the world with a Gospel that offers salvation 
to all, because provided for all. He presents no sub- 
mediators, he preaches no mutilated Christ. He has only 
to look back and around him to behold its God-attested 
glories. It has lifted alike the embruted masses of its 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 



199 



native Isle, and the cannibals of Southern Seas from 
degradation, and consecrated the loftiest intellects to its 
service. It has made the religious world move. We are 
now going to have a monument to John Wesley erected 
in Westminster Abbey. It is now conceded that none of 
England's great sons better deserves it. I have no objec- 
tion to this. With more credit it might have been erected 
sooner. But I incline to the opinion that if Wesley was 
consulted to-day on the matter, his advice would be — 
" Leave off to erect that statue. It is not the kind of 
monument most proper for me. Spend the money in 
spreading the Gospel which I preached. Let me see 
such trophies through the labours of my successors as that 
high caste Brahmin from Ganges' sacred stream, and that 
eloquent Romish Friar from under the gloomy shadow of 
the Vatican, who each witnessed to the power of the Gos- 
pel faith, at the late Conference in Newcastle — these are 
my only appropriate monument." As the stars are New- 
ton's best monument, so holy souls, by the preaching of 
the Methodist pulpit, are Wesley's best monument among 
men. He shall not want them. His Gospel is Paul's and 
it is marching on, not only to a statue in Great Britain's 
" Temple of Silence," but to the Throne of the World. 
Let us catch the spirit of his theme ; and then, whatever 
may be the sum of silly prattle which we may hear from 
the modern tomb-builders around the statue about apos- 
tolic succession, we shall have apostolic success, and thus 
secure the final object of the Christian warfare. 
Let us pass on to notice — 

II. The method necessary to success in the 

STRIFE. 

Method is a matter of importance in the attainment 



2oo The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

of any end conditioned on human agency. Foolish 
methods may hinder the attainment of a good end, 
and wicked means may damage our own character while 
they hinder righteous ends. The end cannot sanctify the 
means. In the matter of striving for the faith of the Gos- 
pel both principles and method are subjects of revelation. 
Let us look at a few features in the apostolic command 
here given : " Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striv- 
ing together ; *•.*** and in nothing terrified by your 
adversaries." Only two points in this exhortation are now 
noticed — the necessity of an united front, and a courageous 
spirit against the common foe. It is in an associated 
capacity that man exerts his mightiest power, either to 
blight or beautify. The Church is a divinely constituted 
and directed association for the overthrow of sin, and the 
establishment of holiness in the world. It must not break 
up the condition of its success — unity. But what kind of 
unity is it ? First, it is unity in the spirit and purpose of 
Christ ; not uniformity of opinion on ecclesiastical polity, 
or mode of worship, or even what some might deem 
Christian dogma. Uniformity of opinion is neither possi- 
ble nor desirable, except upon the essentials of the Gospel 
faith. These every one who has the spirit of holiness 
must have. Paul and Barnabas were not of one opinion 
on every matter, even connected with Christian labour. 
The apostles sanctioned difference of opinion in the Apos- 
tolic churches. But there was a unity of truth, life, and 
purpose among them, nevertheless. There is a great 
variety in the vegetable and animal world, with a unity in 
vegetable and animal life. So it may be in the Christian 
world. With a vast variety in other matters, there may 
be a unity of spiritual life in Christ Jesus. This is the 



Battle for the Gospel Faiih, etc. 20 1 

true ground of union. Those who have attempted to force 
all Christians into uniformity of opinion, or mode of wor- 
ship, or form of government, either by civil penalties, or a 
dogmatic ^-churching of all who will not conform to their 
view, have been the most pernicious schismatics of the 
church. And only that the force of true spiritual life 
baffled all their efforts in the past, we should have had to- 
day the uniformity of the arid desert, not of the fruit-laden 
valley — of the stagnant cess-pool, not of the heaving ocean 
— of the cemetery, not of the family. The only union of 
any value, or any power for spiritual good, is that of spiri- 
tual life, which dwells in the heart of every true Christian, 
by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wherever this exists it 
is a bond of union, and the mightiest impulse to Christian 
effort. Where there is unity of life in Christ, there will 
be unity of purpose with Christ. Without spiritual life, 
and by consequence of its absence, there may be effort to 
bring the world to the unity of the Roman, Greek, Angli- 
can, or other unity ; but there will not be united effort to 
bring the world to the unity of faith and life in Christ 
Jesus. Those who have true unity of spiritual life, ought 
to unite in maintaining the essential integrity, divine 
authority, and universal triumph of the Christian faith, not- 
withstanding their variety of opinion in matters which each 
denomination may deem important enough to justify sepa- 
rate church organization. Ought not these common prin- 
ciples, and aims, lead to unity in the repudiation of wea- 
pons not sanctioned by Christ in the Christian warfare ? 
Has not evangelical Protestantism hindered the triumph 
of spiritual religion in the world by its employment of 
weapons repudiated by Christ, and thus limited the 
Holy Spirit's influence ? How stupid and weak too, the 



262 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

position that the religion of light and love needs to be 
buttressed by civil penalties in order to its protection ; 
and supported by taxes gathered at the point of the 
bayonet, in order that the clergy may be respectably 
maintained ! O ye of little faith ! look at the noblest tri- 
umphs of Christian truth over pagan error, and it had 
none of these supposed necessities. We talk a good 
deal, on the hindrance of infidel speculations ; bu; 
the political union of Church and State has done more 
injury to the cause of the Christian religion than all the 
ravings of infidelity since the crucifixion. An eloquent 
political orator — Phillips — has said : "I hold it a crimi- 
nal and accursed sacrilege to rob even a beggar of a single 
motive for his devotion ; and I hold it an equal insult to 
my own faith to offer me any boon for its profession. 

* * * * The union of Church and State only con- 
verts good Christians into bad statesmen, and political 
knaves into pretended Christians. It is, at best, but a 
foul and adulterous connection, polluting the purity of 
heaven with the abomination of earth, and hanging the 
tatters of a political piety upon the cross of an insulted 
Saviour.'' Will it be said that these are the rash words of 
the political agitator ? Then we commend to the thought 
of all, and especially the Methodists — the words of a wise 
and good minister of Jesus Christ — Wesley. Mark ! he 
is preaching on the " Mystery of Iniquity." " Persecution 
never did, never could, give any lasting wound to Chris- 
tianity. But the greatest it ever received, the grand blow 
which was struck at the root ot that humble, gentle, patient 
love, which is the fulfilling of the Christian law ; the whole 
essence of true religion was struck in the fourth century 
when Constantine the Great called himself a Christian. 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 203 

* * * * Then the " mystery of iniquity" was no 
more hid, but stalked abroad in the face of the sun. Then 
one might truly say, 

" At once in that unhappy age, broke in 
All wickedness and every deadly sin : 
Truth, modesty, and love, fled far away, 
And force, and thirst of gold, claimed universal sway." 

And this is the event which most Christian expositors 
mention with such triumph ! Yea, which some have sup- 
posed to be typified in the Revelation, by " the New 
Jerusalem coming down from heaven!" Rather say it 
was the coming of Satan and all his legions from the 
bottomless pit ; seeing from that very time he hath set up 
his throne over the face of the whole earth, and reigned 
over the Christian, as well as the pagan world, with hardly 
any control/' It is time that all Christians demanded the 
overthrow of those systems of statutable religion and 
national bribery, which have so much hindered the pro- 
gress of true religion. The Holy Spirit cannot give tri- 
umph to these weapons. They secure defeat instead of 
victory. The only hope of the Christian world is in free 
evangelical churches, united in one spirit to their Head, 
and united in the use of Christ's method. 

Again, do not our useless divisions hinder the triumphs 
of the cross by limiting the full power of the Holy Spirit, 
in connection with our efforts ? Metaphysical specula- 
tions sometimes limit God in the domain of physical na- 
ture. He may be permitted to create worlds, and establish 
laws ; but after that He is only permitted to stand by, and 
see how the laws go. God is limited by others in the 
range of redeeming mercy to the narrow belt of the elect 



£04 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

number ; and by others He is limited in His saving power 
to the special channels of their sacramental administra- 
tion. But no limitation is so pernicious in result as the 
moral limitation of the Holy Spirit's influence by our 
sectarian strife. The Jewish people are charged by the 
psalmist with insulting God by their sins in the wilder- 
ness, and thus "limited the Holy One of Israel." Similar 
it may be with divided, and sometimes sectarian Pro- 
testantism. As a mutinous army limits the power of the 
most competent Captain to lead it to victory, so sectarian 
strife limits the power ol the Holy Spirit in connection 
with our efforts. There is a necessity for union. Herod 
and Pilate are made friends on the same day that Christ was 
to be opposed. So it is now. Colenso and Bradlaugh, Pio 
Nono and Boston infidels unite against the authority of the 
Bible. Let the true Church unite. Separate units, nor even 
flying squads, will not accomplish the purpose. One grain 
of gunpowder contains the same explosive elements as 
millions. The spark that lights the one grain would light 
the millions, if close together. Set them off in separate 
grains and very little will be effected. But bring them all 
together in the cannon, or well-laid train, and the ball 
carries destruction into the enemy's camp, or the ground 
is blown from under his feet. Similar would be the effect 
of united effort by all Christians in behalf of the faith once 
delivered to the saints, among the hosts of sin. It would 
blast the usurped ground from under the feet of the man 
of sin, when he would fain distract attention from his own 
blasphemous unity to our endless sects ; it would scatter 
the innumerable hosts of small cynics, and pseudo 
philanthropists, who charge the church with a want of 
sympathy with the suffering and oppressed ; for then, 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, ete. 205 

Christianity would appear in embodied form as the most 
beneficent power in the world — " a thing of beauty and a 
joy forever." The solid, but motley hosts of the foe, the 
errors of the past, the hopes of the future, the prayer of 
Jesus, and the wail of a dying world — all unite to enforce 
the exhortation of the text — " Stand fast in one 'mind, with 
one spirit striving together for the faith of the Gospel." 
When the ancient Romans were hard pressed by the events 
of war, they fled to the temples of their gods for armour 
and weapons of war. Let Christians only go to the armory 
of Christ for these, and victory waits to crown them. 
Hope for the world's speedy conquest to Jesus will 
brighten, when the army of Christ is united in the spirit, 
weapons and aim of Jesus ; and bearing down on the man 
of sin, not in contentious factions, but in united regiments. 
United we conquer, divided we fall. Let us hear the 
notes of the true war-song : 

"In God's own might 

We gird us for the coming fight ; 

And strong in Him whose cause is ours, 

In conflict with unholy powers, 

We grasp the weapons He hath given — ■ 

The light, and truth, and love of heaven." 

Finally, we are exhorted in the text to strive for the 
faith of the Gospel courageously, " In nothing terrified by 
your adversaries." Neither in the first, nor in any age 
since, have we any cause for terror ; but much to inspire 
courage. Three kinds of force have been tried for the 
overthrow of Christianity — it must be crushed by the 
sword, refuted by reason, or killed by the introduction of 
foreign poison. We take courage when we know that all 



206 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

failed. In pagan Rome it came in contact with a politic- 
al power which then reigned as the proud dictator of the 
world. Collected in its Pantheon at Rome were perched 
in stately grandeur the gods of its established religion. 
Before these gods the Christian refused to bow. Persecu- 
tion — the natural weapon of falsehood — soon began its 
brutal work ; Christian blood flowed abundantly ; and in 
reading the bloody pages of what has been called the 
first ten persecutions, as the reader approaches the close, 
he feels inclining to the opinion that there cannot be a 
further supply of victims, though the pagan altar, like the 
horse-leech, still cries — give. Succeeding this brute force 
others are employed. The Rationalistic forces are hired. 
Christianity must be refuted. Accordingly, the satirist, 
the philosopher, the priest of literature, appear on the 
battle field, all marshalled in array, and panting for the 
blood. Brute force attacked Christianity from the first, 
but it was not until the middle of the second century that 
it became the subject of literary investigation. When the 
pagan literary forces came forth against it, it was to justify 
the brute persecutions, to satirize the proscribed Christian, 
and to supercede it by an eclectic theosophy. The result 
of the conflict presents a series of facts, which, combined 
with the means employed, inspires the Christian with 
courage. On the Christian side there is no weapon em- 
ployed but the preaching of its own peaceable principles, 
and fidelity to its supreme authority. On the pagan side 
there are employed the bloody sword of the most power- 
ful political state in the world, the bigotry and superstition 
of the pagan masses, the learning of the philosopher, and 
the altar of the priest — all in favor of a system embodied 
in the political state, and consecrated by ages. Well> 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 207 



what is the result ? The curling sneer is flattened on the 
lip of the scorner, the sword falls in pieces, the philos- 
opher is refuted, the oracles are confounded, the temples 
are deserted, the Pantheon is depopulated, the Christians 
multiply, Christianity ascends the throne, and 

" Apollo from his shrine 
Has ceased for ever to divine." 

Looking at this, has the Christian any reason to be ter- 
rified at the adversaries of the Christian faith ? Nor need 
we be terrified at the result in succeeding ages. True, 
the beauty of Christianity was marred, and her life en- 
dangered, by the introduction of foreign poison. Aristotle, 
Plato, Plotinus, and Maimonides would be surprised, 
if permitted to take a peep at the manner in which 
they shaped the church, from their mouldering urns. But 
Christianity showed that, when seen in her beauty, she 
had attraction sufficient to make her children shake off the 
medieval vampire that had fastened his envenomed fangs 
upon her vitals. The Reformation springs forth, and, 
like the Phoenix from her ashes, with invigorated body 
and newly plumed wing, she goes forth on a bolder flight 
than ever. Since then, the Christian has no reason for 
terror, though there is much to suggest certain lines of ac- 
tion. The English Deists were driven completely from 
the field in Britain. Their sophisms received their quietus 
by Butler, and their power for evil among the masses 
was counterworked by the revival under Wesley and his 
coadjutors. The national atheism of revolutionary France, 
under the strumpet called the Goddess of Reason, did not 
long survive. " The Almighty's vengeance blazed against 
the wall of her temple, the diadem fell from the brow of 



208 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

the idolater, and the blood of her victims extinguished 
the flame of the altar." English Deism contributed to 
German Rationalism, which has marred the work of the 
Reformation in its native home. But notwithstanding its 
great swelling words of vanity, it is now on the wane, even 
in Germany itself. A large number of godly evangelists 
are leading the masses back to the simple, but invincible, 
faith of the Gospel. Perhaps it may be useful to Christians 
in Canada to know that this has largely to be done in 
spite of those State Universities of which we hear so 
much, which are not misrepresented by being called 
brooding-haunts of infidelity. But after all, while Rome 
is crumbling, the Bible is spreading, freedom moves, and 
Rationalism is bearded in its own den ; we have no reason 
to be " terrified at our adversaries," either in the field of 
Ritualism or Rationalism. But, hark ! Another bugle- 
note is sounded, other weapons are forged, and other 
forces are marshalled. Positivism now takes the field. 
We are told that heretofore we have had nothing solid to 
contend against, for "philosophy is impossible," but 
Positivism " verifies every step," and this upsets the 
superstition of the supernatural. We have no time to dis- 
sect this brute, but claim a little space to exhibit him. He 
has had other forefathers, but we look at him in the naked 
deformity of his French father, and his English off- 
spring. It is characteristic of Christianity that the wisdom 
of her author is justified by her children ; and it already 
appears that the stupidity of Positivism is patent, by the 
folly of its Father — Compte exhibits it in himself. After 
his " Course of Positive Philosophy," he founds a religion, 
draws up a " Positive Calendar" of worship, and the gods 
are again presented. But who or what are they ? Well, 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 209 

just this — in his philosophy the " being of God is an un- 
necessary hypothesis/' but in his religion we are to wor- 
ship " collective humanity under the idea of a woman/ 
The Pantheon is again replenished, and in it there figure 
Moses, and Paul, side by side with Confucius, Mahorr.et, 
and Voltaire. This is thy religion and these be the gods 
who are to go before thee, O Positivism ! Where do they 
lead ? Back to the old idolatry, and down to the old 
pagan degradation. They will soon smother in their 
native slime. But it must be noted here that the English 
offspring are ashamed of their sire, and wish us to spread 
the mantle of pity over such a specimen of brain- 
atrophy, as Compters religion. Be it so. But then, what 
do they give us instead of the Christianity they ignore? 
As the mightiest evolution we have, as a "first principle," 
the " Great Absolute Unknown." We know nothing 
about Him — or rather it — we can ask nothing from Him. 
This last of the gods by Spencer has been justly charac- 
terized as " an Almighty dead head yclept the Absolute. 
An unintelligent absolute is an infinite fool, and fools be 
they who admit its supremacy." Have Christians with 
their hand in the hand of the Heavenly Father any reason 
to be terrified at this mumbo jumbo for a god. Let us leave 
this infinite fool in the embraces of his foolish children 
while we look at the man presented to us. What is he ? 
Well, we have for his origin 44 force," " protoplasm," and 
an "Ascidian," grub, which, in the course of evolution, 
developed into an African hairy monkey, and then in- 
to a man. For a soul we have a " brain that secretes 
thought as the liver secretes bile." Conscience is nothing 
but "associations of sensations," and benevolence a 
" secretion of sugar." This has been called the " dirt 

N 



2io The Canadian Methodist Pulpit 



philosophy." It may be a dirty philosophy, but it is not 
the philosophy of dirt. It might do for the hogs of the 
Epicurean stye, but while there is a spirit in man, and the 
inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding, he 
will loathe this material brute of evolution. We are not 
terrified at this " adversary." Though the forces mar- 
shalled in its defence may appear possessed of the dash of 
its French father, and though formed in the solid squares 
of his ^-English offspring, yet the iron and clay of which 
the brute Colossus which they defend is composed, will 
be broken into pieces by the strokes of the stone cut out 
of the mountain without hands. It may hinder its super- 
stitious devotees from attaining the glorious immortality 
which the Gospel faith offers even to them ; but it will 
never supersede it in the world. The Sun of Righteous- 
ness will continue to illumine the pathway to glory long 
after oblivion has spread her sable veil over the noisy 
howls of those boastful " adversaries." The history of 
the past, and the movements of the present, justify the 
conclusion that, at the very least, the foes of Christianity 
will never be able to overcome it. But it is still asked, 
do they justify the conclusion that Christianity will 
ultimately triumph over every foe ? We do not say they 
do, though they certainly point in that direction. To 
warrant its final triumph we catch the inspiration of the 
Master's promise, and of the Leader's voice — " all power 
is given unto me in heaven, and in earth, go ye therefore 
and preach the Gospel to every creature, and Lo ! I am 
with you always, even unto the end of the world." These 
words warrant the conclusion of universal triumph. Suf- 
ficient wisdom to plan, power to execute, and will to use 
these for the purpose, must succeed. All these are to our 



Battle for the Gospel Faith, etc. 2 it 

Leader given, and that without measure. Tindal may- 
tell us that "the tap-root of all science is force/' but we 
reply, we care not, for the tap-root of the Christian re- 
ligion is the Creator and controller of all forces, and He 
is made " Head over all things to the church.'' He has 
led, and is still leading her forth, conquering and to con- 
quer. Let us catch the inspiration of Paul in this text> 
and strive steadfastly, unitedly, and courageously for the 
faith of the Gospel, and — 

" The world must sink beneath the hand 
Which arms us for the war." 
What— " Though the conflict be hot, 
The field hath no strife 
Where your Captain is not." 

Act under His courage-inspiring eye. Act under the 
firm conviction that every prayer you offer, and every 
sacrifice you make, will burnish your own crown of re- 
joicing in the great day of Christ, and will assist in 
ushering in the day of the world's millenial glory, when— 

4 ' All crimes shall cease, and ancient frauds shall fail, 
Returning justice lift aloft her scale ; 
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, 
And white-robed innocence from heaven descend." 



MANNA. 



SERMON XI. 

By REV. C. FISH, Peterborough. 

" And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face 
of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar 
frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they 
said one to another, ' It is manna: ' for they wist not what it was. 
And Moses said unto them, ' This is the bread which the Lord hath 
given you to eat' " Exodus xvi. 14, 15. 

ISTORY is a great teacher ; it makes known to 
us many of the follies and sins of our race, 
and furnishes forcible illustrations of the truth 
of that scripture, "The way of transgressors is 
hard." It often appears as a beacon on the 
ocean of life, warning us to avoid the rocks 
against which others dashed, and the deceitful quicksands 
where thousands have perished. History places before 
us some of the moral excellencies of our race, and plainly 
shows us, in the example of others, the road to virtue and 
happiness, and solemnly impresses us with this fact, that 
real wealth, honor and happiness are to be found in God 
only. And yet again, you will observe, that in history 




Manna. 



we have striking exhibitions of the attributes and per- 
fections of Jehovah; there is "God in history." 

How forcible and sublime were the manifestations of 
these attributes and perfections in the history of God's, 
ancient people, the Jews. In the stupendous miracles 
wrought out for their deliverance, what proofs of the 
Divine Omnipotence. " Marvellous works did He in the 
land of Ham." In the means employed for their guidance 
and protection what marks of infinite skill — " He led them 
by a pillar of cloud in the day-time, and by a pillar of fire 
by night." In sparing a murmuring, stiff-necked, and re- 
bellious people so long, how impressive and cheering the 
proofs of Divine forbearance and tender mercy. " Forty 
years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, it 
is a people that do err in their heart and they have not 
known my ways." And in the rich and continuous be- 
stowment of so many blessings, what evidences of unde- 
served and enlarged beneficence. " He sent them meat 
to the full." " He brought them forth also," says the 
Psalmist, "with silver and gold, and there was not 
one feeble person among them." He rebuked the Red 
Sea also, and it was dried up ; "so He led them through 
the depths as through the wilderness. And He saved 
them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeem- 
ed them from the hand of the enemy. The people asked, 
and he brought quails ; He opened the rock, and the 
waters gushed out ; they ran in the dry places like a 
river." And yet not wearied with blessings, as we learn 
from the text, He gave them bread from heaven, " And 
when," says Moses, " the dew that lay was gone up," 
etc. 

J. Consider this bread literally in its suitabil- 



214 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



ity to the Jews, and typically in its application to 
Christ as the source of universal blessing. 

i // was a needed supply. To all human appearance 
those hundreds of thousands of men, women and children 
were in danger of perishing for want of food. They evi- 
dently both saw and felt the great want ; to them starva- 
tion appeared already in their midst, and in their unbe- 
lief in God, and utter despair, they cried, " Would to God 
we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt" 
In this their great extremity God sent them bread to eat 
which they knew not of. 

The above is a faint picture of the utter destitution of 
our race in consequence of sin. Man's spiritual ruin is 
variously represented by God the Holy Ghost. He is a 
probationer, "yet without strength,'' all his moral powers 
having been paralyzed by transgression. 

He is debtor, totally bankrupt ; " had nothing to pay ; * 
dependent on the bounty of another ; he has forfeited 
all claim to sympathy from his Benefactor, and is in a 
perishing condition. 

He is a traveller, but has missed his way ; he is now an 
exile in a far-off land, and in seeking his way home again 
is in danger of being buried in the deserts. 

He is a subject of moral government ; he has rebelled, he 
has been tried, found guilty, and condemned, and now 
awaits the execution of that sentence. 

The children of Israel needed bread to save them from 
perishing ; much more did our utterly ruined world need 
a Saviour. For aught I know, a substitute might have 
been given to those Jews, but what could be given as a 
substitute for Christ ? Take Christ from the Old Testa- 
ment and what have you left ? You have Patriarchs and 



Manna. 



2I 5 



Prophets, Priests and Kings, but no Saviour. Take Him 
from the New Testament, and you have Apostles and 
Evangelists, but no Saviour. Take Christ from the 
church of to-day, and its light, life, beauty, and glory 
have all departed, and you have a valley full of dead 
men's bones, and very dry. 

If the church be a garden, Christ is its beauty and 
fragrance ; He is " the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the 
valley/' 

If a house, Christ its foundation and chief corner stone. 

If a family, Christ its elder brother, the chief among 
ten thousand, and altogether lovely. 

If the church be composed of sinners saved by grace, 
then are we taught that all are saved " through the re- 
demption that is in Christ Jesus." Man had fallen be- 
yond the power of self-restoration — " And I looked," said 
Christ, "and there was none to help; and I wondered 
that there was none to uphold : therefore mine own arm 
brought salvation unto me." "For it is not possible 
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 
Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, 
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast 
thon prepared me : In burnt offerings and sacrifices for 
sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, 
(in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy 
will, O God." (Heb. x. 4—7.) 

" Not all the blood of beasts, 
On Jewish altars slain, 
Could give the guilty conscience peace, 
Or wash away our stain. 

But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, 
Takes all our sins away ; 



216 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



A sacrifice of nobler name, 
And richer blood than they. " 

2. // seems a suitable supply. 

This was the food with which the Lord fed His people 
in the wilderness of Sin. Moses speaks of it as white, 
like hoar frost, round, and of the size of coriander seed. 
It fell every morning (except Sabbath) upon the dew, and 
when the dew was exhaled by the heat of the sun, the 
manna was found upon the rocks and upon the sand. 
How appropriate. Bread was the common want, and 
that Jehovah sent them. Had He opened for them a 
mine of silver, or of gold — nay, had He given them silver 
and gold as the dust, still they must have perished, as 
they could not purchase bread in the wilderness. God 
saw their need, and the blessing He sent them was just 
what was necessary to supply it. 

How pre-eminently suited is the Lord Jesus Christ to 
meet all the wants of our ruined race. Are we in dark- 
ness ? He is the light of the world. In bondage ? He 
gives " liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison 
to them that are bound/' Alienated ? He is the way to 
the Father, as well as "the Truth" and " the Life/' 
Every prodigal may come home to God through Him. 
Are we guilty ? He abundantly pardons. Are we impure ? 
His blood cleanses from all sin. Are we dying? or 
already dead in trespasses and sins ? Christ gives 
spiritual and eternal life — 

"The Gospel, what a glorious plan, 
How suited to our state, 
The grace that raises fallen man 
Js wonderful indeed. " 



Manna. 



217 



We are told the Thracians had a striking emblem ex- 
pressive of the mighty power of God. It was a sun, with 
three beams ; one shining on a sea of ice and melting it; 
a second shining on a rock and producing the same results, 
and a third, shining upon a dead body, and putting life 
into it. This emblem symbalizes the suitability of 
Christ's Gospel; it warms the coldest heart, melts the 
hardest, and raises those dead in trespasses and sins to a 
life in righteousness — 

" In vain our trembling conscience seeks 
Some solid ground to rest upon ; 
With long despair our spirit seeks 
Till we apply to Thee alone." 

As the sound of this Gospel fell for the first time upon 
the ears of an ignorant Greenlander, named Kaiarnach, 
he stepped forward, and looking the missionary full in the 
face, said in an earnest and affecting tone, " How was 
that ? Tell me that once more, for I would fain be saved 
too." 

3. It was a seasonable supply. A thing may be good 
at any time, but much more so sometimes than other. 
God has not only given us good things, but He has given 
them when most needed. He gives us good things in 
season. 

The promise of a Saviour was made to our great pro- 
genitor, when thick darkness was gathering around him, 
and he was about to be driven from Eden an outcast and 
a wanderer. The angel was sent to Lot in time to save 
him from the consuming flame which destroyed the city 
of Sodom. Abraham had already lifted the knife to slay 
his *son, when a voice was heard from heaven saying. 



218 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

" Lay not thine hand upon the lad." Joseph was dis- 
covered to his sorrowing father in time to save the whole 
family from perishing by famine. Pharoah's daughter was 
led to the river's brink in time to save the future lawgiver 
of Israel from a watery grave. The serpent was lifted up 
in the wilderness, ere sinful Israel was utterly cut off. 
Elijah, on the eve of despair, had fled into the wilderness 
and was begging he might die, then the angel of the Lord 
appeared to comfort and strengthen him. When pro- 
perty, health, strength, friends, and all seemed gone, no- 
thing left but simple trust, then Jehovah appeared as the 
help and defender of His servant Job. So in the case of 
those Jews in the wilderness : all other help was gone, then 
did the Lord come ; He came when His help w T as most 
needed and when no other being in the universe could 
help, and He came in time. At the battle of Water- 
loo, column after column had been precipitated for 
eight hours on the enemy posted along the ridge of the 
hill. The sun was rapidly sinking ; reinforcements for the 
defenders were in sight ; it appeared necessary to carry 
the position with one final charge or everything would be 
lost. A powerful corps had been summoned from across 
the country ; if it came in season all might yet be well. 
The great commander, confident in its arrival, formed 
his reserve into an attacking column and led them 
down the hill. Alas ! alas ! Grouchy failed to ap- 
pear, but Blucher was there ; the Imperial General 
was beaten back, Waterloo lost, and Napolion died 
an exile on the Island of St. Helena, because one of his 
Marshals was too late. Years ago a condemned man 
was led to execution, who had taken life under great pro- 
vocation • thousands had signed a petition for his reprieve 



Manna, 



219 



and it was fully expected. The last hour for the poor 
criminal had come, but no reprieve. And now the minutes 
fled swiftly, the people still looked and hoped ; the last 
moment gone, the fatal bolt was drawn, and a lifeless body 
hung suspended in mid-air. And now a horseman is in 
sight, his steed covered with foam ; in his right hand he 
held a packet which he waves to the crowd ; it was the 
express rider — he brought the reprieve, but, alas ! he was 
a little too late. 

So said the physician when summoned to the bed of 
the dying: "A little too late, Madame." The philan- 
thropist reaches the scene of the calamity in time to learn 
that the sufferers are beyond his reach. The life-boat nears 
the wreck in time to see her sink with her helpless crew. 
Not so the Redeemer of our world. He not only came 
to seek and to save that which was lost, but He came in 
season ; He came in time to save the first sinner, and to 
save all his descendants. 'Tis true, that man had been 
tried, found guilty, and condemned. The sword had been 
drawn from its scabbard, but Jesus said, " Lo, I come 
quickly" He was there to receive it, and as " He bared 
His bosom to the stroke/' He cried, "Deliver him from 
going down to the pit, I have found a ransom." 

" With pitying eyes the Prince of Peace 
Beheld our helpless grief ; 
He saw, and O, amazing love ! 
He flew to our relief." 

4. It was an abundant supply. 

Abundant supplies were needed for so great a multi- 
tude, supposed to be not less than three millions. Cut off 
from Egypt's stores and surrounded by enemies, this was 



22o The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



their only source of supply ; yet it was found to be amply 
sufficient both for priest and people. It is thought that 
every man gathered as much as he could, and when 
brought into the encampment, it was measured by an 
omer, (about three quarts English measure,) if any had a 
surplus it was given to some other family that had not 
been able to collect a sufficiency, in consequence of the 
family being large, or the infirmity or sickness of some of 
its members, and the time of gathering being so brief, 
viz., before the heat of the day. St. Paul tells us, a He that 
gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little 
had no lack. (2 Cor. viii. 15.) We find that the manna fell 
in such great quantities during the forty years of their jour- 
neyings as to feed the whole multitude. Moses says, 6 1 And 
the children of Israel did eat manna for forty years until 
they came to a land inhabited ; they did eat manna until 
they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan." (Exo- 
dus xvi. 35.) He satisfied them/' says the Psalmist " with 
the bread of heaven." Now we are taught to regard this 
abundant supply of bread from heaven to meet the neces- 
sities of those perishing Jews, as a type of the rich pro- 
vision made for all mankind in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
The Prophet Isaiah speaks of this provision as a feast 
spread upon a mountain, open to all. We are told in our 
Lord's parable of the great supper, that when they had 
brought in as many as they could find, it was said, " And 
yet there is room." He who by His own Son, proclaimed 
this Gospel, and by Him founded the Universal Church, 
has assured us that the leaves of the trees are for the 
healing of the nations, and the gates of the kingdom are 
open to all nations, tongues, kindreds, and people. It 
would seem as if in the church's divinely appointed ancj 



Manna. 



221 



perpetuated ministry, the glorious vision of the Apocalyptic 
seer was realized, "And I saw another angel fly in the 
midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach 
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, 
and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud 
voice, " Fear God and give glory to Him ; for the hour 
of His judgment is come." (Rev. xiv. 6, 7.) And in the 
church's divinely instituted and perpetuated sacraments, 
the voice that saluted John in Patmos is still heard, say- 
ing, " I am the root and the offspring of David, and the 
bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the Bride 
say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let 
him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him 
take the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 16, 17. 

"Its streams the whole creation reach, 
So plenteous is the store ; 
Enough for all, enough for each, 
Enough for evermore." 

5. It was a miraculous supply. 

" As for the earth," said Job, " out of it cometh bread." 
(Job xxviii. 5.) Here, however, we find the order of 
nature reversed, and the bread came not out of the earth, 
but from heaven. It was not obtained by the sweat of 
the brow, by ploughing and sowing ; nor was it purchased 
with silver or gold ; it fell around their tents and they 
were permitted to gather as much as they needed. The 
Israelites never saw anything like it before \ its very name, 
we are told, signifies, "What is it?" and thus expresses 
their surprise at its appearance, " When the children of 
Israel saw it, they said one to another, " What is it?" 
for they wist not what it was. Moses calls it in the text, 



^22 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

" The bread which the Lord hath given." It is called in 
Ixxviii. Psalm and ver. 2$ " Angel's food." It is evident 
from the testimony of Moses, that it was nothing common 
to the wilderness, and that the Israelites had never seen 
anything like it before. " He fed thee with manna which 
thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know." (Deut. 
viii. 3.) It is the opinion of divines, that nothing like the 
manna of the wilderness had ever been seen before, nor 
has anything like it appeared since miraculous supply in 
the wilderness ceased. It was truly bread from heaven, 
sent by the special interposition of God. And yet strange> 
extraordinary, and miraculous as this supply of bread may 
appear, how it sinks into insignificance when compared 
with that wonder of wonders, the incarnation and offering 
of the Son of God, the Lord of glory, who came down 
from heaven to be the spiritual bread of His people. "I 
am that bread of life." " Your fathers did eat manna in 
the wilderness and are dead." " This is the bread which 
cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof 
and not die." (John vi. 48-50.) Well did Isaiah call 
Him Wonderful, and St. Paul exclaim, " Great is the mys- 
tery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh." (1 Tim. 
iii. 16.) He the brightness of His Father's glory, and the 
express image of His person, made Himself of no reputa- 
tion, but took upon Him the form of a servant ; appeared 
in the likeness of men. He came, not to His friends, but 
to His foes ; not to condemn but to save — to save, as He 
tells us, that which was lost. 

' 6 God did in Christ Himself reveal, 

To chase our darkness by His light, 
Our sin and ignorance dispel, 
Direct our wandering feet aright, 



Manna. 



223 



And bring our souls with pardon blest 
To realms of everlasting rest." 

6. // was a gratuitous supply. 

It required neither gold nor silver to obtain as much as 
they needed. It was without money and without price. 
So also we are told in the provisions of the Gospel — " He 
that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, 
buy wine and milk without money and without price." 
(Isaiah lv. 1.) 

A poor woman on one occasion applied to the king's 
gardener, offering all the money she had for a bunch of 
grapes for her sick child. The gardener rudely repulsed 
her and she was going away weeping, but the king's daugh- 
ter being at hand, and having learned what she wanted, 
kindly said, " My dear woman, you are mistaken, my 
father is not a merchant but a king, his business is not to 
sell but to give." Suiting the word to the act she broke 
off the grapes and dropped them into her lap. 

Even so is it with the Son of God : He is not a mer- 
chant, but " King of Kings and Lord of Lords," and it is 
His business not to sell, but to give. 

"Nothing ye in exchange shall give ; 
Leave all you have and are behind ; 
Frankly the gift of God receive, 
Pardon and peace in Jesus find." 

II. Directions concerning the Manna. 

Note — It came within the reach of all. 

Among the Jews of that day, as now, no doubt there 
were rich and poor, high and low, learned and illiterate ; 
some camped near the Tabernacle, some more remote. 
Yet irrespective of station or condition in life, and the 



a 24 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



location of tent, the manna fell within reach of every one, 
So also in the Gospel of Christ. — " To you is the word of 
this salvation sent." " The Kingdom of God is come nigh 
unto you." " I bring near my righteousness, and my sal- 
vation shall not tarry ; I will place salvation in Zion for 
Israel my glory." 

i. They were to gather it early. 

He that left not his tent till the sun came forth in its 
heat, lost the provisions of the day. " And when the sun 
waxed hot it melted." (Ex. xvi, 21.) The Gospel feast is 
provided and we are all invited ; we must, however, as 
individuals come for ourselves and partake of Christ in 
order to possess ourselves of the provision He has made. 

" Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto 
you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
His blood, ye have no life iny ou." (John vi. 53.) And 
in order to make the supply certain, gather early, for 
" Those," said Christ, " that seek me early shall find me." 

The Lord graciously does for us what we cannot do for 
ourselves. Naaman could not remove the leprosy, but he 
could dip himself in the Jordan. The disciples were not 
able to multiply the loaves, but they could break the 
bread and distribute to the multitude ; they had not the 
power to raise Lazarus from the dead, yet they could roll 
away the stone. So in the case before us ; could not pro- 
vide the bread of God from heaven, but in both cases can 
readily gather it when the Lord has sent it so near to us 
as to be within the reach of all. 

" Come and partake the Gospel feast ; 
Be saved from sin ; in Jesus rest ; 
O taste the goodness of your God, 

And eat his flesh, and drink his blood. " 



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225 



2. They were to gather regularly till their journey mgs 
ended. 

The supplies of yesterday would not suffice for to-day, 
nor the abundance of to-day meet the necessities of to- 
morrow. So the Lord taught them as He teaches us, to 
feel our constant dependence upon Him. They are in- 
structed to pray, " Give us this day our daily bread," and 
are exhorted to feed upon Christ by faith from day to day, 
to "go from strength to strength, till we all appear before 
God in Zion to " Be faithful unto death," and to " Hold 
fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the 
end." 

3. They were to distribute. 

Every one gathered as much as he could, and brought 
the fruit of his labours into the encampment. It was then 
measured and divided amongst the several tribes and 
families according to their number. So with the Gospel 
of our Lord Jesus Christ \ our duty is quite plain, we are 
to appropriate and distribute. The general principle laid 
down is this : Gather all you need for yourselves and dis- 
tribute largely to the multitude. " Freely ye have received, 
freely give. To do good and to communicate forget not, 
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." " And if 
thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the 
afflicted soul ; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and 
thy darkness be as the noonday ; and the Lord shall 
guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, 
and make fat thy bones ; and thou shalt be like a watered 
garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not." 
(Isaiah lviii. 10-11.) 

Heads of families, class-leaders, Sabbath school teach- 
ers, and the elders of the people, especially preachers of 
o 



226 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the Gospel, need to gather largely, for they are called 
more especially to be " Always abounding in the work of 
the Lord." Inasmuch then as they are required to be 
always giving, they should be always receiving. May it 
always be so, for the Lord's sake. Amen. 



THE FAMILY OP GOD. 



SERMON XII. 

By REV. WM. J. HUNTER, Ottawa. 

"Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. 
— Ephesians iii. 15. 




OD setteth the solitary in families. 97 The first 
man was a solitary man. God looked upon all 
the works His hands had made, and pronoun- 
ced them " good." But the " Lord God said, 
it is not good that the man should be alone; I 
will make him an help meet for him." Amid 



all the beauty and fertility of an unsullied Paradise he 
was alone. With all his lofty faculties, and all his Divine- 
ly imparted dominion he was alone, and therefore God 
made him a companion, capable of correspondence in 
thought, and language, and emotion. 

The posterity of Adam and Eve have multiplied into 
millions, and have overspread the face of the earth ; but 
everywhere, and in all ages, we find traces of the Family, 
that Divine institution begun in Paradise. This vestige 
of Eden's happiness remains to comfort the toilers be- 



228 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

neath the curse— sweet emblem of the brighter home 
above. 

The family on earth ! — but for this many a man's hopes 
were wrecked utterly. When the financial disaster came 
upon you, and you went home one night, threw yourself 
upon the sofa, and said, " I am a ruined man," what saved 
you from the bitterness of despair ? Your family. The 
accents of a true wife fell upon your heart like oil on the 
troubled waters; and the sight of the little ones all uncon- 
scious of your sorrow, nerved you for the conflict. Dash- 
ing aside the burning tears you said, "All is not lost while 
wife, and health, and children remain ;" and in this 
strength you went forth to regain the lost fortune. If 
there is one place upon earth more like heaven than 
another, it is the home where dwells a united and happy 
family. When Jesus would comfort the heart of His dis- 
ciples, this thought was chosen : " Let not your heart be 
troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me. In 
my Father's House are many mansions.' 7 And thus 
St. Paul in the lowliness of his prison life consoles himself 
and the Ephesian Christians with the reflection that he is 
a part of God's great plan, and a member of the " whole 
family in heaven and earth." When we consider the 
saved on earth and in heaven under the figure of a family, 
we must note the following characteristics : 

I. A Common Parentage. 

Biblical scholars have opened a wide field of verbal 
criticism in their exposition of this text. Some doubt if 
the words, " of our Lord Jesus Christ," in the preceding 
verse are genuine, while others reject them altogether. 
It is contended that the phrase " of whom" finds its proper 
antecedent in the word " Father" in the 14th verse ; and 



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229 



this view is opposed on the ground that the nearest ante- 
cedent is the "Lord Jesus Christ," and therefore the cor- 
rect one. The view of the latter class of expositors is 
that " the Lord Jesus Christ has given the name Christian, 
and all which the name covers, to the one family of God. ; > 
The former class claim that " it is the Father that gives 
the name to the family generally, and hence the patria 
seems naturally to refer to the pater, the family to the 
father. Then again, many of the German commentators 
take patria in the sense of a race, and interpret the pas- 
sage thus : — " Every kind of created being derives its origin 
out of God the Father, and bears His name as Creator.''' 
To this it is objected that the word patria naturally means 
family and not race, and may be so translated in every 
passage where it occurs in the New Testament. The 
point is not worth disputing, for who will question that 
God is the Father of all the united universe ? Dr. Clarke's 
exposition is the most simple and rational. " Believers in 
the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, the spirits of just men made 
perfect in a separate state, and all the holy angels in heaven, 
make but one family, of which God is the Father and 
Head." The idea that God is the Father of His intelligent 
creatures is not peculiar to the Scriptures. The desire to 
stand in a filial relation to the Supreme Being is among the 
deepest yearnings of the human heart. Even the heathen 
have claimed a Divine origin. " Certain also of your 
own poets have said, For we are also His offspring." 
(Acts xvii. 28.) As the Creator, God is the Father of all 
intelligent creatures. " The Father of spirits " the God 
of the spirits of all flesh ; " " one God and Father of all." 
But men as God's creatures are not so fully His children 
as were Adam and Eve by creation. When they sinned 



230 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



they lost the tokens of Divine parentage that graced 
their souls in Eden. By creation and first resemblance 
they were the children and heirs of God, but by their 
works they were disinherited. Now all men are born the 
depraved and condemned offspring of degenerate Adam, 
" in his own likeness, after his image." So thorough and 
radical is this moral defilement of the soul, that nothing 
less than a new birth, a new creation, can restore it to the 
likeness and image of God. Hence the Scriptures teach 
that only on the ground of the Redeemer's work, the Holy 
Spirit's testimony, and our conscious regeneration can we 
with joyful assurance say "our Father." We become 
the children of God through faith in Christ ; " as many 
as received Him to them gave He power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believed on His name ; 
which were born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God. " " The Spirit itself beareth wit- 
ness with our spirit that we are the children of God : and 
if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with 
Christ ; " and " Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth 
the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, 
Father." Herein differs our sonship from that of the an- 
gels. They are His sons by creation only ; we by regen- 
eration and adoption as well. Faith makes all the differ- 
ence amongst men; so that the proverb is true, "Without 
faith the devil can show as good a coat of arms as we.'' 
A common parentage — the parental likeness and disposi- 
tion given in creation, and retained as in the case of the 
angels, or lost in the fall and restored and retained through 
faith in Christ. 

II. Unity is another characteristic of the family of 
God. By this term I mean concord, agreement, a unity 



The Family of God. 



231 



of feeling and sentiment. This unity may be seen in a 
common resemblance to God. " We all, with open face 
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed 
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord." Even in his fallen, unregenerate 
condition, man bears some tokens of resemblance to God, 
as, for example, reason, conscience, immortality. But in 
the new creation of the soul the moral attributes of God 
are communicated. His natural attributes, such as eter- 
nity, omnipotence, omniscience, are incommunicable — 
they cannot be imparted to others, they belong to God 
alone ; but His moral attributes, such as goodness, holi- 
ness, truth, are capable of being communicated, and they 
are communicated to all regenerate persons. Believers 
are partakers of God's moral nature. God and good are 
convertible terms. God is good. The highest form of 
goodness is love, and " God is love." To be good therefore, 
in the highest sense of the word, is to be God-like • and 
wherever you find a member of the family of God you 
find this mark — he is God-like. 

Love to God is the root, the very essence of religion, 
and love to the brethren is a natural and necessary result 
of love to God. " Every one that loveth Him that begat 
oveth him also that is begotten of Him." " By this shall 
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one 
to another." To see children born of the same parents, 
and reared under the same roof, without affection and 
sympathy, is unnatural. True, there may be little family 
jars, difference of opinion, and even alienation of feeling, 
but let a common affliction fall upon the family — as in 
the death of Isaac — and Jacob and Esau, so long estranged, 
will forget their animosities, and mingle their tears over 



232 The Canadian\Methodist Pulpit. 

the dust that is alike sacred and dear to them both. If 
we are children of God we are one in character, sympathy 
and aim. The spirit that can cherish a feeling of jealousy 
or hatred against a member of God's family, is of the 
devil, and not of God. It is a sad commentary upon 
the brotherhood of Christ, that in societies and associ- 
ations of men, such as the Masonic, the Odd Fellows, and 
kindred institutions, there is not unfrequently found a 
warmer and truer friendship than in the Christian Church. 
I speak no word of condemnation against these organiz- 
ations, but I emphatically assert that no tie should be so 
sacred, no bonds of love so pure and strong, as those 
which unite the members of God's family. " Every de- 
parture from the spirit of ardent affection, all neglect of 
brotherly regard and sympathy, is unworthy of a follower 
of Christ. Love to God the Father, love to Christ the 
Saviour, and, not least in importance, love to the children 
of God, wherever they may be found, is an essential 
element of Christian character ; and this, burning in purity 
and power in each Christian's heart, makes his union with 
his fellow Christians delightful and profitable, and gives 
to all thus united the character of a happy family." 

But while there is in the family of God this unity of 
feeling and sentiment, there is also as another charac- 
teristic — 

III. Diversity. 

Unity and diversity — these two are not incompatible. 
In all God's works there is unity and diversity. Flower, 
and shrub, and tree ; hill and dale ; cloud and sunshine ; 
ocean, lake, river and cataract ; day and night ; summer 
and winter. What a delightful unity, what an exquisite 
diversity. Thus it is in God's family. Amongst the an- 



The Family of God. 



233 



gels there are numerous orders. There is but one Arch- 
angel. Then there are " thrones," " dominions," " princi- 
palities," " powers," " cherubim" and " seraphim.''' The 
human race is one. God hath made of one blood alj 
nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth. They 
all sprang, not from Darwin's theory of development, but 
from the creating hand of God. There are tribes of men 
who, from their habits and customs, seem to be but one re- 
move from the beasts that perish ; but wherever you find 
humanity, you find it capable of elevation, improvement, 
refinement and salvation. And yet how great the diver- 
sity j not simply as witnessed in the Caucasian, the Mon- 
golian, the American, the Negro and the Malay — the five 
great varieties of the human family; but climate, customs, 
manners, tastes, and habits, produce a marked variety in 
those who live in the same country, and under the same 
form of civilization. No two persons can be found exactly 
alike in form and feature, and disposition. And although in 
families there is what we term a family likeness, yet there 
is a variety, a diversity of disposition and tastes. A family 
of all boys or all girls is rather monotonous. And so when 
all the boys take to the same business or profession ; but 
when one is ingenious, and takes to engineering ; another 
financial, and takes to business \ another quick and clear 
in intellect, and takes to law or medicine, and a fourth, 
possessing all these talents, devotes them to the highest 
and noblest of all callings — the work of the Christian 
ministry — you have the true idea of a family unity and 
diversity. 

How beautifully is all this illustrated in the family of 
God. One is naturally solemn, almost inclined to melan- 
choly \ another is cheerful and full of hope \ one is like 



234 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



Paul, logical and argumentative ; another is like Apollos, 
fluent and eloquent ; a third is like Peter, bold and im- 
passioned ; and a fourth is like John, quiet and patient, 
leaning upon the Master's bosom ; one is like Martha, 
" careful and troubled about many things ; " another is 
like Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus learning the lessons 
of His love. Brethren, there is a place for every one of 
us in the family of God ; let us be content to occupy 
that place. What supreme folly to expect every member 
of the family to think, and speak and act alike. Why in- 
sist upon every warrior wearing Saul's armour ? The sling 
and stone suit David best ; let him use them. The object 
is to slay Goliath, the armour is of secondary importance. 
Don't find fault with that brother because he does the 
worK of the Lord in his own way and not in yours ; don't 
call him a dry, slow, tame preacher because his style is 
doctrinal and expository ; don't brand him as a sensa- 
tionalist when he clothes his thoughts in the current lan- 
guage of the day, and crowds his church with attentive 
hearers. He could not, if he would, adopt your style and 
succeed, nor could you his. Your Father is his Father, 
and He gives to His children diversity of gifts, but one 
Spirit. Do not imagine that there is no place for you in 
the affections of the great Father, because you are feeble 
and insignificant. Father and mother may be proud of 
the son whose talents command wide-spread influence and 
applause, but the warmest, tenderest place in the heart is 
reserved for the invalid of the family — the poor lame boy 
or the fair frail girl. When the rest of the children are en- 
joying their outdoor play, the little sickly one nestles 
close beside father and mother, and the tears come to 
their eyes as they say, " God bless him, he cannot share 



The Family of God. 



235 



in the merriment/' God cares for the sickly ones. u Like 
as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear Him." He carries the lambs in His bosom. 
Your very weakness and frailty, if the heart be right, 
make you the object of His most affectionate solicitude. 

Another characteristic of God's family is — 

IV. Dispersion. 

" The whole family in heaven and earth." So great 
has this family become in point of numbers, so wide- 
spread the dispersion, it embraces heaven and earth. 
But mark well the fact, only heaven and earth. There 
are none in purgatory — there is no purgatory in the Bible. 
Neither are there any members of this family in hell. Its 
inhabitants are cut off from God forever, cast out from His 
presence and the " glory of His power." Every member 
of God's family is in heaven or on earth. The family on 
earth : who compose it ? For an answer to this question 
we must consult, not the creeds of men, but the words of 
Jesus : " Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which 
is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and 
mother." This is the Scriptural text, and the only true 
test of connection with the family, and I shall hail the 
day when before it our denominational banners shall bow, 
and our denominational fences shall be lowered, so that 
over and across them we may give a brother's hand to 
every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The family of 
God on earth is more numerous than many accustomed to 
look through sectarian glasses think it is. They are not 
all found within the pale of one church. They do not 
all dwell in one country, the wide world is their dwelling 
place. 

The Jew considered himself the only favourite of God, 



236 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



and the Gentile, enriched by the poverty of the Jew, may 
anathematize the outcast sons of Abraham. The high- 
church man may ostracise the dissenter, and the dissenter 
may pity the wax work and millinery of ritualism \ but 
the family of God is not confined to any of these narrow 
ecclesiastical inclosures. Repentance and faith, the re- 
newal of the Holy Ghost, vital union with Christ, these, 
and these alone, constitute us members of the family of 
God. And where these exist, I care not what the colour 
of the skin, nor what the denominational shibboleth — the 
possessor of them is my brother in Christ. Away with 
that bigotry and exclusiveness which would shut out a 
true Christian from our hearts because he does not bear 
our distinctive - name. " Of God in Christ the whole 
family in heaven and earth is named." Not of Wesley, 
not of Knox, not of Luther, but of Christ the family is 
named. "The disciples were first called Christians at 
Antioch." Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congrega- 
tionalism these simply indicate what regiment of the army 
we belong to, the army is one, and when the conflict is 
over, and " the ransomed of the Lord shall return and 
come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their 
heads," as they pass through the gates into the city this 
will be their song : 

' ' Let names and sects and parties fall, 
And Jesus Christ be all in all." 

The whole family on earth ! how numerous and wide- 
spread it is. Our brothers and sisters ! they are found in 
China, in Africa, in Hindostan, in the islands of the sea, 
amid the snows of the north, in the sunny climes of the 
south. Out of every tribe, and tongue, and people they 



The Family of God. 



237 



have been redeemed unto God. Kings and Queens, 
Princes and Presidents, are found amongst them; for 
many of these have bowed the knee to Jesus. Senators 
and statesmen, soldiers and sailors have rallied round the 
red-cross sign. Men of wealth and men of learning, 
widows with their mites, and beggars with their sores, 
hoary heads with their crowns of glory, ripe manhood with 
its seal of strength, fair youth with its flush of beauty, 
smiling infancy with its heart of innocence — all these we 
hail and greet as members of the " whole family upon 
earth." 

But my text intimates that a portion of the family are 
in heaven. Ah ! yes ; there is the family residence, there 
dwells the loving Father, and the elder Brother, and the 
family servants, " ministering spirits sent forth to minister 
for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Thank God a 
large portion of the family are in heaven. Abel, the first 
martyr, was the first to get home to the family residence. 
Straight up to the Throne he went, took down his golden 
harp, and struck the first note of the new song ever heard 
in heaven — " Unto Him that loved me and washed me 
from my sins in His own blood, and hath made me a king 
and a priest unto God and His father : to Him be glory 
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 

How soon the first family was divided ; how soon Adam 
and Eve were taught to set their affections on things above. 
One earthly tie was severed, and a new silken cord was 
woven to bind their hearts to the throne of God. And 
from that day to the present what multitudes have gone 
home to the family residence. Patriarchs and Prophets, 
Apostles and Martyrs, and a great multitude that no man 
can number. John saw them in his vision, and asked one 



238 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



of the elders, saying, " What are these which are arrayed 
in white robes ? and whence came they ? " You remem- 
ber the answer. " These are they which came out of 
great tribulation and have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they 
before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night 
in His temple ; and He that sitteth on the throne shall 
dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither 
thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor 
any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the 
throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living 
fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes." When we speak of these we are accus- 
tomed to say " they are dead," but they are not dead — 
they are far more alive than we are. They are safe, safe 
at home. And who amongst us has not contributed to 
swell the number ? You have, and so have I. You re- 
ceived a telegram one day that made you tremble and 
turn pale. It said " come at once, mother is dying." 
You started by the first train and arrived at midnight. 
All was quiet around the old home, but there was light in 
every window. And when you opened the door you were 
met with a flood of tears and kisses, and when you went 
upstairs and into the death chamber, mother opened her 
eyes and recognised you, and father bowed his head and 
wept. You were a strong man — many years ago you had 
left the parental roof — but when the recollection of a 
parental love came in like a flood upon your soul, the 
great deep of your heart was opened, and you felt how 
hard it was to give her up, even in her old age. But, see ! 
Yonder, before the throne, is mother now — grey hair all 
gone — wrinkles all gone — she is clothed upon with im- 
mortality. 



The Family of God. 



2 39 



And that wife whom you gave up because you could 
not help it ; that husband who blessed his young wife 
and little babe with his expiring breath — they, too, have 
gone home to the family residence. And the little ones ; 

how many of these are in heaven. There are few 
earthly homes without some memento of departed little 
ones — 

" There is no flock however watched and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there ; 
There is no fireside howsoe'er defended, 
But has one vacant chair," 

You can never forget when your little one sickened and 
died. It was the idol and joy of the family. But it grew 
sick, and you sent for the doctor, and he felt its pulse and 
left some medicine, and when you questioned him as to 
the nature of the disease he said : " You know doctors 
can't do much for children." And when he came again 
the next day baby was worse, and he said : " Perhaps you 
would like me to call in another doctor just for consulta- 
tion/' And then your heart grew heavy, and that night 
baby died, and has been buried in the deep grave of your 
heart ever since. But where is baby now? In heaven — 
your baby still, and like David you comfort yourself with 
the thought that though " he shall not return to you, you 
shall go to him." O the graves of the dead, how I wish 

1 could transfer them from the cemetery to this church just 
for an hour. I would arrange them in rows before yon, 
and then I would pass between the rows and read aloud 
the epitaphs your hearts dictated while they were yet 
tender with the first sorrow of bereavement. Alas ! do 
not your lives give the lie to those epitaphs ? You buried 
the loved ones in sure and certain hope of the resurrec- 



240 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

tion unto everlasting life. You sat by the bed of the 
dying one with the cold hand in yours, and said again and 
again, " Dear darling one, we shall meet again — meet in 
heaven." But here you are to-day, unpardoned and un- 
saved. Have they not been watching you all the time, 
and if it be possible for sorrow to enter heaven, are they 
not sorry when they see your conduct ? O ye to whom 
these words come like voices from the past — from the 
little cradle, and the little cot, and the little grave, I pray 
you by the memory of all these things — by the memory 
of a mother's love and a father's prayers — by the memory 
of a husband's grave and a wife's last look of tenderness — 
I pray you come now to your Father and my Father, to 
your Saviour and my Saviour, for the new heart and the 
new name. For, without these, without repentance, faith, 
pardon, adoption and regeneration, you cannot become a 
member of the "whole family in heaven and earth." 
Friends of the Lord Jesus, and brethren in Christ, I speak 
to you in the beautiful words of another, " We are sur- 
rounded by a great cloud of witnesses. They are triumph- 
ing with their King, we are fighting His battles. They 
are in Canaan, we are in the wilderness. We have the 
manna, the guiding pillar and the frail tabernacle, they, 
the corn and the fixed temple of the New Jerusalem. We 
are following in their train, and our faith is quickened and 
strengthened by the thought that they watch us in our 
struggles. Stand fast, my brethren. Do not yield. Thou 
art not alone in the fight. Jesus is with thee. The 
Apostles and Prophets in heaven are before thee ; the 
glorious army of martyrs see thee; the Eye that met 
Stephen's in his trial is upon thee. And Q, consider the 
reward. Life, purity, holiness, the fellowship of eternal 



The Family of God. 



241 



love, the presence of the Son of God, unutterable nearness 
to God Himself, enlarged and perpetually increasing know- 
ledge. These are before thee, and are they not worth 
struggling for ? Perish the sins that would deprive me of 
this hope, be they the dearest, the sweetest that ever de- 
ceived man. Shall I listen to the world or heed its siren 
voice when Jesus calls me to follow Him ? Shall I hesi- 
tate between a few years and eternity ? Shall I yield to 
influences which must degrade me, rather than the hopes 
that can make me a man, a conqueror, and an heir of 
heaven? Never. By God's help I will take my lot 
with the saints and " follow the Lamb whither-soever He 
goeth." Amen. 



THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 
SERMON XIII. 

By REV. C. FRESHMAN, D.D., of Ingersoll. 

e< This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and 
be glad in it. " — Psalm cxviii. 24. 

HERE are two things which influence the 
Christian wherever Providence directs his 
wanderings, and signalize his national and re- 
ligious character. They are the divine wor- 
ship of God, and the holy Sabbath. They 
are intended to remind him also of the cove- 
nant made between God and His people. 
These two are closely connected, as may be seen if 
we carefully study the commandment of God as found in 
Lev. xix. 30, " Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, and reverence 
My sanctuary : I am the Lord." Here the Lord enjoins 
upon His people to keep His sabbaths and to reverence 
His sanctuary, showing the necessity of their united con- 
nection, and the injury which must follow to the Church 
of God should they be separated. 

We know by experience too, that wherever and when- 
ever God's Sabbaths are kept then and there are His 




The Christian Sabbath. 



243 



sanctuaries reverenced, and the worship of God is pre- 
served in its primitive purity, simplicity, and solemnity. 
And where, on the other hand, His Sabbaths are dese- 
crated by unhallowed worldly pursuits, where temporal 
things wholly absorb and engross the human mind, the 
services of religion fall into decay ; for with decay of piety 
comes cold, dull, formal religious services, and almost 
forsaken sanctuaries. When the mind is crowded by 
worldliness it cannot aspire to things sacred, spiritual, and 
sublime. Hence the prophets of God frequently, when 
they spake against the prevailing corruption of the times, 
predicted the decline and downfall of religion, and with 
it the destruction of the empire. " Thou hast despised 
Mine holy things and hast profaned My Sabbaths" 
" Therefore have I poured out Mine indignation upon them; 
I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath" — (Ezek. 
xxii. 8, 31.) 

I. In the introduction of this our sacred theme 
we ask the question \ Is this day ( Sunday ) the day 
which God hath made, and appoi?ttedtobethedayofrestfor 
us? Is this the day in which we may " rejoice and be glad 
in it ? " 

Is this the day we are to keep holy? We answer it is, 
and we are borne out in this in the words of our text ; 
also in the words of the commandment, (Exod. xx. 8-12,) 
and in Deut. v. 12-16. A reference is made in this latter 
text to the redemption of Israel, wrought out by the hand 
of Moses, when they were delivered from Egyptian bond- 
age, which redemption was only temporal, yet a type of 
that which is the spiritual redemption of the whole race 
of Adam accomplished by Jesus Christ upon the cross of 
Calvary. The Apostle Paul says : " Let no man there- 



244 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

fore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an 
holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days : 
which are the shadow of things to come." (Col. ii. 16, 17.) 
In Eccles. iv. 15 it is said : " I considered all the living 
which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall 
stand up in his stead." Hosea says, " By a prophet the 
Lord brought Israel out from Egypt, and by a prophet is 
he to be preserved." There are two covenants, two dis- 
pensations, and two kinds of redemption, which present 
two reasons for keeping the Sabbath day. The Sabbath 
of old was kept in remembrance of God's rest from crea- 
tion and of temporal redemption — but the Sabbath under 
the new dispensation is to be kept as the day of the Lord 
on which the great work of spiritual redemption was ac- 
complished ; when the Son of Man, who is Lord also of 
the Sabbath, arose from the dead, and made this day for 
us to rejoice and be glad in it. 

4 4 'Twas great to speak a world from naught — - 
'Twas greater to redeem." 

Christ was the end of the law. Christ lay in the grave 
during the Sabbath of old, burying as it were with Him all 
the types, shadows, and symbols of the old dispensation, 
and when He arose on the first day He introduced to the 
world a new covenant, a new dispensation, a new Sabbath 
with all its attendant blessings. 

The Israelites of old, as well as the Jews of present 
times, rejoice in their Sabbath, because they were deliv- 
ered from Egyptian bondage, from tyranny and slavery ; 
but this day (Sunday), which the Lord hath made for us, 
to rejoice and be glad in, is the remembrancer of the 
great spiritual deliverance which our Lord Jesus Christ 



The Christian Sabbath. 



245 



has accomplished for us. " This is the day which the Lord 
hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." 

The manna did not descend from heaven to feed the 
Jews upon the Sabbath of old ; but the Holy Ghost de- 
scended upon the Christian Church on the first day of the 
week, or on the Christian Sabbath. This was a wise ar- 
rangement of Providence, that this great event in the his- 
tory of our race should take place upon that day. 

It is also noticeable that the most remarkable appear- 
ance of our Lord Jesus Christ to His apostles, after His 
resurrection, took place upon the Christian Sabbath. This 
day is intended to remind us of that resurrection. Chris- 
tian, if you are risen with Christ, and have entered with Him 
into the kingdom — if you are born again of the Spirit of 
God, all old things have passed away, and all things be- 
come new, then you know what it is to be in the Spirit 
on the Lord's day — to rejoice and be glad in it. How 
much comfort does the Christian enjoy, who, after the 
toils of six days, enters upon the Christian Sabbath, and 
who in the sanctuary receives the glorious sounds falling 
upon his ears, " Come unto Me all ye that labour and 
are heavy laden and I will give you rest: take My yoke 
upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in 
heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls." 

II. The sacred hours of the Christian Sabbath 

ARE INTENDED TO ELEVATE THE SPIRIT OF MAN, AND TO 
RAISE HIS MIND HEAVENWARD. 

No true Christian can be indifferent to its claims. He 
who is truly a man of God will make a proper use of this 
precious gift of life, and in it dedicate himself to God. 

Men sometimes, through the whole course of their earthly 
existence, are forgetful of the claims of the sacred Sab- 



246 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

bath; they never once think of its uses; they grope about 
in the dark, unstable and aimless, without ever bringing 
to mind that the end of life must come sooner or later ; 
but when their career draws to a close they discover that 
they have missed the great aim of life, and would gladly 
live their lives over again. When the first ray of spiritual 
life breaks upon their darkened minds and dissipates the 
mist which has enveloped their souls, they become fear- 
fully conscious that their days are numbered, and of their 
great error in squandering away this precious gift of God; 
but they cannot recall the Sabbaths which have fled and 
gone forever. Oh, let Christian people think of the end 
of life — of the resurrection of the body — of the coming 
judgment day — and the eternal world, and live to God ; 
not, childlike, feast themselves upon the world's trifles, or 
give up themselves entirely to indulgence in worldly plea- 
sure to the neglect of that which is truly valuable, and 
makes life precious, not to forget virtue, a beautiful 
human embellishment, nor the redemption of the world 
by our Lord Jesus Christ, nor life and immortality 
brought to light by the Gospel. These are the grand 
themes taught in the temples of God on the sacred Sab- 
bath day. These are among the hid treasures, the pre- 
cious gifts of God, from Him who is our " wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification and redemption" Let the Chris- 
tian sound the organ, strike the cymbal, and strike the 
harp-strings, and let all the sons and daughters of God 
sing for joy, make merry and be glad. 

The Jewish Sabbath was intended to remind the Jews 
of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. This 
was a most important event in the history of the Jews. 
It was intended to remind them of the very birth of their 



7 he Christian Sabbath, 



247 



nation, which is as wonderful as its preservation is without 
example in the history of mankind. 

That deliverance forms the basis of their claim to be 
the " chosen people of God" and was their first step toward 
the kingdom of heaven, for now their minds were unfet- 
tered, they possessed liberty to think for themselves, and 
they could now use that liberty in opening their hearts to 
receive the beneficent and fructifying influence of the 
Divine precepts ; that man alone who has been emanci- 
pated from the degrading influence of spiritual bondage 
can devote his life to the service of God, and to the prac- 
tice of brotherly love and charity. The slave who pines 
away under the iron hand of a tyrant who is constantly 
loading him with burdens hard to be borne, has no life, 
no heart, no family or vocation, no will of his own — his 
will is to do that of his tyrant taskmaster — but not so with 
the people of God, who are set free by the blood of Christ, 
they are " free indeed." " If the Son therefore shall 
make you free, ye shall be free indeed. " (John viii, 36.) 
During the reign of that darkness which covered the land 
of Egypt just previous to the deliverance of the children 
of Israel, light was in the dwelling places of God's people ; 
so, the true children of God have ever light in their souls, 
in their dwelling places, and in their sanctuary. Christian, 
if you are redeemed from all iniquity, and your heart is 
free, you are the subject of humane feeling, of noble senti- 
ments, of glowing life, reviving love. " Delight thyself also 
in the Lord ; and He shall give thee the desires of thine 
heart." (Psalm xxxvii, 4.) " If thou turn away thy foot 
from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy 
day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, 
honourable ; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own 



248 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine 
own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; 
and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of 
the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy 
father : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. — 
(Isaiah lviii. 13, 14.) 

III. We are commanded by God Himself to labour 

ON SIX DAYS OF THE WEEK AND REST ON THE SEVENTH 

or Sabbath Day. Man was born to labour, and by that 
means to develop his physical and mental powers — in this 
way to promote his own good through the whole of his 
earthly existence. Activity is life, slothfulness is death. 
There is activity in plants — in every creature throughout 
the vegetable kingdom, but there is no consciousness, no 
mental faculties. Among the animal tribes there is ac~ 
tivity and consciousness, but no freedom of will. Man 
alone of all the creatures of God possesses all these : he 
has both physical and mental powers, and a will to make 
choice of good or evil, which will is free. Man therefore 
should see to it that he, more than all the creatures of God, 
should conform his will to the supreme will of God, and his 
actions should receive the approbation of the Most High. 
He who labours to no other purpose but to enjoy life, 
lowers himself with the brute creation, and lives uselessly. 

On the Sabbath day it is profitable to meditate, and 
how many glorious themes present themselves to the 
thoughtful, religious mind. Life, its highest aim, man's 
origin, duties, trials, death and final destiny. His re- 
lation to God and his fellow creatures. The true enjoy- 
ments of life, the hand of Providence supplying us on all 
sides with precious gifts, temporal and spiritual, and con- 
stituting man capable of the enjoyment of all the blessings 



The Christian Sabbath. 



249 



of Providence. " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ; 
and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and 
walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine 
eyes : but know thou, that for all these things God will 
bring thee into judgment. " (Eccles. xi. 9.) 

Industry properly employed and innocent pleasure sober- 
ly enjoyed are sanctioned by religion, while the sinful plea- 
sures of the world are accounted exceedingly sinful, and 
bring down upon those who indulge in them the wrath of the 
Most High. We should therefore employ our talents, de- 
velop our endowments to advantage, and enjoy the 
fruits thereof with gladness. Then we shall attain unto 
that state of perfection which will qualify us for immortal 
blessedness. The duties of the sacred Sabbath are all in- 
tended to impress upon our minds the fact that without 
holiness no man shall see God, and to lead us to seek that 
state of preparation that eventually, when freed from 
earthly trouble and perplexity, we may partake of that 
heavenly blessedness promised to us in the Word of God. 

And now, beloved brethren, " Remember the Sabbath 
day to keep it holy/' for the Lord hath said, " Blessed is 
the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it." The 
Sabbath was made for man. Oh that we might cultivate 
that spirit which will fully accord with the spirit of the 
Sabbath day ; not of frivolity and sin — but that which is 
spiritual, devout, God-like and heavenly, not thinking 
our own thoughts or speaking our own words, but ever 
meditating upon that state of existence which eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart 
of man to conceive — the sacred Sabbath of eternal rest, of 
which our earthly sabbath is only a type. Oh, that it may 
be ours to enjoy the hallowed rest of that glorious Sabbath 
forever. Amen. 



KNOWLEDGE IS LIFE. 



SERMON XIV. 

By REV. A. RAYNOR, M.A., Professor of Modern 
Languages and English Literature. 

" And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only 
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." — St. John xvii. 3. 

F we take the knowledge of God here spoken of 
to be knowledge in the ordinary sense of the 
word, then no one of us, and no finite spirit 
may ever know eternal life. The question of 
God's nature, and even the question of His ex_ 
istence, can never be certainly established by 
pure reasoning, or by a merely intellectual operation. 
The strongest and subtlest minds have in all ages sought to 
set these questions at rest, and the result is, that to such 
minds, apart from evidence beyond the reason, God is still 
the unknown God, and men are almost agreed to call 
Him the unknowable. This is the last despairing word of 
human philosophy, and it is only a late verification of the 
judgment of ages long gone by. " Canst thou by search- 




Knowledge is Life. 



ing find out God ? canst thou find out the Almighty unto 
perfection ? it is high as heaven, what canst thou do ? 
deeper than hell, what canst thou know ? " He brings us 
then no glad evangel who tells we may gain eternal life, 
knowing God and Jesus Christ, when by knowing he 
means the demonstration of God's existence, and the com- 
prehension of His nature and attributes. 

But there is a knowledge of another kind — a knowledge 
of the heart and experience, as well as a knowledge of the 
head or intellect. Knowledge of the one kind is gained 
when the mind turns its powers to certain problems and 
masters them ; knowledge of the other kind is gained 
when great principles of truth or justice, of beauty or 
goodness — principles too large for our comprehension, 
enter into our souls and influence and determine our 
actions and feelings in such a way that we seem to be 
possessed of them rather than to possess them. Let me illus- 
trate by something still more simple and concrete. See, in 
the darkened study, a single pencil of light enter through 
a small hole pierced in the closed shutter and fall through 
the heavy, dusty air ; and see that stooped and sickly man 
who is studying the light. He unbraids the iris hues and 
weaves them again into the white light. He has studied 
much on the properties of light and air, and on their in- 
fluence on the health of mind and body, and he knows 
much more if you will than any other living man about 
these things. And yet, after all, what does he know of 
the beauties of colour, and of the quickening sunlight, 
and of the exhilarating breeze, shut up there from day to 
day in that dark and musty room? What does he know 
compared with that wandering bare-foot boy. who, tired 
with chasing the butterfly, throws himself down in the 



252 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

sweet clover to bask in the warm, sunshiny air ? The 
philosopher knows a great deal about light and air, but he 
does not know light and air, and he is dying for lack of 
that knowledge. The boy has never asked himself a 
curious question about these things, and yet they are 
hourly rilling him with the joy of life. Just so, a man 
may be filled with the knowledge of God through Jesus 
Christ, and yet know very little about that divine source 
of eternal life. The divine influence may so possess the 
man as to move him to thoughts and words and deeds 
utterly above himself, and yet the nature of that presence 
and influence remains forever a mystery. 

In considering this knowledge of God, we ask, 

I. What may we know of God, and wherein does 
He reveal Himself ? 

II. What are the avenues by which this light or 
knowledge is received into the human conscious- 
ness? and 

III. What is the effect of this knowledge on 

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND DESTINY ? 

1. Having seen the vanity of presuming to explain the 
mysterious nature of God and unfold the modes of His being, 
we turn to the humbler but wiser task of trying to understand 
how far and where He has made Himself known and felt, 
or, to use a common word in a wide sense, how far and 

WHERE HE HAS REVEALED HlMSELF. 

Through His works in Creation God impresses human 
spirits with a certain sense of His own eternal power and 
Godhead. That the forms and motions of created things, 
and the whole aspect of nature do produce such an im- 
pression, do awaken in the human spirit a sense of God, 
is simply a fact. The only question is as to how this im" 



Knowledge is Life. 



253 



pression is produced. At present we have to do with the 
fact, and the fact is that the instinct of worship is awak- 
ened in man by the contemplation of created things. The 
wild Indian hears God's awful voice in the thunder and in 
the cataract, and owns His goodness in the plentiful sup- 
ply of fish and game. He fears God's anger in the pesti- 
lence, and has a vague presentiment of forgiveness and 
eternal life when he gazes through the golden vistas of the 
setting sun. And this is not the mere superstition of the 
uncultured soul ; it is the experience of man in every 
grade of culture. The most advanced chemists and 
physicists of modern times, men who trace the workings 
of nature in their subtlest forms, come from their studies 
with reverent hearts. Every atom of matter whispers to 
them of the mysterious yet faithful power, every living 
form tells of the one supreme all governing mind, and the 
vast and star-hung systems move through the infinitudes 
of space, 

" Forever singing, as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine. " 

Again, through the order and course of things in human 
life, God impresses human spirits with a further sense of 
His own presence and government. This also is an un- 
questionable fact. Men instinctively ascribe the retribu- 
tions of this life to the watchful control of some power of 
goodness, and they have a certain hopeful or fearful an- 
ticipation of final award by that Power, according to the 
deeds done in the body. The wicked man feels this even 
when he is most prosperous in his iniquity, and hand 
joins in hand to secure him against human vengeance, he 
feels that he shall not go unpunished by that unsee n all 



2 54 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



seeing Power, and he is disquieted by a fearful looking 
for of judgment The good man feels it too, even when 
he is suffering for righteousness' sake, and he appeals in 
hope to the final decision of the righteous Judge of all the 
earth. 

Besides these natural, indirect and constant modes of 
revelation, God has at sundry times made special and 
more immediate manifestations of Himself to impress men 
with new aspects of His nature, and new views of His de- 
signs. The lives of the Patriarchs, of Moses and of the 
Prophets in sacred story, furnish illustrations of this ; and 
I do not see what warrant we have to assume that such 
revelations were entirely confined to ancient times, or to 
the men of whom we read in our sacred writings. , Socrates 
and Plato, Zoroaster, Mahomet and Buddha — these men 
stand out in the gloom of the Gentile ages, revealed by a 
light of the knowledge of God. It is true that light may 
look like a blot when held between us and the sun of our 
gospel day, but it is also true that the light that was 
in them seemed strangely brilliant in contrast with the 
darkness of the ages and the people amongst whom they 
stood. Whence came that light, and whence the con- 
straining impulse felt by these men to give the light to all 
about them ? I must say that I cannot look upon them 
as inspired of the Evil One, the Father of Lies, but rather 
as lesser Gentile Prophets, men whose eyes were half- 
opened to the light of the heavenly vision, and who, with 
all their weakness and errors, laboured sometimes under 
the burden of the Lord. 

But do not fancy, dear brethren, that because I have 
dwelt thus on the glimpses of the only true God that are 
reflected from Nature and Providence, and that flash on us 



Knowledge is Life. 



2 55 



from the prophetic spirit — do not fancy that I am un- 
mindful of the brightness of the Father's glory that beams 
on us in the face of Jesus Christ. God made the sun to 
rule by day, but it is the same God who made the moon 
and stars to rule by night ; and may we not look with 
reverence and gratitude at these, even when we glory in 
the greater Light ? I am not afraid that I have spoken 
too highly of the dimmer revelations, but I am oppressed 
with a sense of my inability to speak worthily of the In- 
carnate Revelation — of Him who could truly say, "He 
that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." Oh for 
wisdom and grace to speak aright, and to be silent aright, 
on this exalted theme ! In order to realize, if possible, 
how much of the knowledge of the only true God we owe 
to Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, let me ask you to try 
to leave out of your conception of God everything that 
the world has learned of Him from the Divine Re- 
vealer. Pass this act of oblivion, and you will find your 
conception of God suffer a strange and dire eclipse. The 
brilliance of His holiness is dimmed and almost quenched, 
and the quickening warmth of His eternal love for man is 
quite shut off. Penitence and prayer, and faith and 
hope are almost dead, and love is turned to stone. And 
in this horrible light, or rather "darkness visible," how 
changed and ominous does all around appear ! There is 
no pensive hue above us, no quiet green below, and all 
bright and gladsome hues turn pale. We cannot recog- 
nise a friend in those draped forms about us, or catch the 
glance of brotherhood, in those dark faces. Oh, Jesus ! 
thou who art the Light of the world, appear once more, 
that we may see our Father God in heaven, and our 
brother man below. 



256 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



It is only in the spirit and teachings, and wondrous works 
of Jesus Christ whom God hath sent, that the world has 
learnt how to distinguish aright between the only true God 
and the world that He has made. Apart from the know- 
ledge of God in Christ, we see in the moving universe 
only the ponderous and remorseless sweep of a vast ma- 
chine — crushing in its unthinking course whatever does 
not call itself brute matter. But in Jesus Christ we know 
Him "who is over all, God blessed forever." To Him 
is committed " all power in heaven and in earth." The 
forces that work in nature are no longer senseless and ir- 
responsible; but they are the ministers of Him who 
makes all things work together for good to them that love 
God — who brings good out of seeming evil, and who 
guides the world and all created things to one far-off 
divine event. Apart from Jesus Christ, men feel indeed 
the burden and the pain of sin ; but no where amongst 
the sons of men, or amongst the gods many and lords 
many, whom they have invented, can their wearying, 
longing eyes behold one able and willing to save. It is 
only in Jesus Christ the crucified, that the world can see 
the atoning and vicarious suffering of the only true God — ■ 
the God who is love. Here, and here alone, is the Foun- 
tain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Here " behold 
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
world ! " 

I have sometimes wished that I had been born in the 
darkness of heathenism, in order to know more of the 
beauteous light of the gospel by seeing it with unfa- 
miliar eyes ; but when I think of the distracting doubts, 
of the fear of false gods, and the mistrust of man, of the 
groanings and travailings of prayers the heathen are never 



Knowledge is Life. 



257 



taught to pray, and of the yearning hopes and aspirations 
that take form for a moment, only to sink back again into 
the chaos of despair — then from the deep places of my 
soul there goes up a psalm to Him whose goodness and 
mercy have followed me all the days of my life. 

II. Our second study of this subject is on the 

AVENUES BY WHICH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD 
FINDS AN ENTRANCE INTO THE SOUL OF MAN the powers 

of apprehension by which this knowledge is received — 
the sources of conviction of the supreme spiritual verities 
Some objections may as well be met here as further on. 
Why does not God make so striking a display of His awful 
presence that it would be impossible for any man in his 
senses to harbour a doubt as to the existence and govern- 
ment of God ? Why does He not write His name across 
the dome of heaven, that every eye may see? Why does He 
not shake the earth with the trumpet of His archangel, 
that every ear may hear ? Why does He not at once and 
always visit the sinner with unmistakable marks of His 
displeasure, and reward the righteous with conspicuous 
tokens of His favour ? These questions I used to ask 
myself, and perhaps some of you ask them now ; but it 
seems to me that it is but to ask in other words why God 
should put us to any probation whatsoever, and why He 
should seek to develop our moral natures. I do not 
think there could be any real probation, or any healthy 
moral development if God had done as we have supposed 
in these questions. Recollect His object is not so much to 
make us do His will as to cultivate in us characters that 
delight to do His will, and take pleasure in all things true 
and beautiful and good. Such spiritual growth could not 
take place, if the time of our probation were turned into 
Q 



258 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



one long judgment day. We would in that case think so 
much of heaven and hell that we could not stop to think 
of sin and holiness. The spring is now about to come, 
and soon the growing warmth will melt the ice and snow. 
The genial sun will kiss the tears from the face of the 
waking earth, cherish the numb germs of bloom and 
verdure, and by and by bring forth the mellow fruits and 
golden grain. Need I ask you why God does not fling at 
once the burning rays of the tropic sun upon the torpid 
life of March ? Because, in a very short time that excess 
of heat would destroy the life which in its moderation it 
will cherish and develop. Just so it is in the moral de- 
velopment of the human soul. The germinating virtues, 
the spiritual independence, the love of the right and good 
for its own sake, the moral choice — all would be forced 
beyond all possibility of healthy growth, our own person- 
ality would be completely absorbed, and our wills over- 
borne by that irresistible spiritual presence. And yet, 
whilst no man can see God and live, it is only in the 
knowledge of God that we can find eternal life. 

Again, it is sometimes thought hard that the power to 
discern God clearly is not given to mere intellect, so that 
a man might by patient study gain the full knowledge of 
God, just as he may gain the demonstration of truths in 
geometry. This objection or difficulty is not unlike what 
we have just been considering, and it is partly met in the 
same way. Moreover, we have already seen that it is not 
knowing about the true God and Jesus Christ, but knowing 
God, that has to do with our eternal life, and this last kind 
of knowledge, the intellect alone, in the very nature of 
things, could never reach. 

The conscious reason, however, is not excluded from 



Knowledge is Life. 



259 



the spiritual discernment, but much more is included. 
That intimate knowledge which we gain of our fellowmen 
— -a, knowledge that often moulds our characters and 
changes our lives — is seldom or never gained by simple 
reasoning. There is something repulsive in the very 
thought of this gross method of dealing with a human 
spirit, much more with the infinite and eternal spirit of 
God. Accordingly, God seems to have withdrawn Him- 
self from the rude advances of the conscious reason only 
to make Himself more fully known in simple and more in- 
timate ways. Let me give the name of the unconscious 
reason to some of these subtle powers of discernment, or 
ways by which we reach the knowledge of God. When 
we reason consciously we see clearly how we draw certain 
conclusions from certain premises, but the unconscious 
reason comes to correct conclusions without taking dis- 
tinct notice of the premises. We all reason more or less 
in this way. Something in a man's look or tone of voice 
tells us of the friendly or unfriendly spirit that may not 
show itself for days or years. We can not see exactly 
where the change is, but we are indistinctly conscious of 
some change or other in expression which harmonizes 
with the change of feeling. This indistinct perception of 
relations is often as true and much more wonderful in its 
intimations than the glaring light of conscious reason. I 
think it is chiefly by this subtle perception of relations that 
the visible works of God impress our minds with a sense 
of His invisible things, and that the course of life and 
providence suggests the moral government of God. This 
quickness and delicacy of discernment is in common 
things more marked in women than in men. How quick is 
woman to judge of character from its insensible symptoms 



260 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



in conduct, and in many cases she has a truthfulness and 
force of conviction that leave the slow conscious reason of 
the stronger, and perhaps coarser, mind plodding and 
climbing far below. The greater religiousness of wo- 
men, in some aspects of religion, is due to this fine- 
ness of the unconscious reason not to any weakness of 
mind. Here, too, may be found one reason why genuine 
scepticism is almost wholly confined to men trained to 
the exercise of the sensuous reason, and disposed to neg- 
lect all other powers of perception. On the other hand to 
the poor, the young, and all classes and nations left to the 
natural balance of the conscious and the unconscious 
reason — these are universally religious — to these the 
gospel is preached, and the things of the kingdom re" 
vealed whilst hid from the wise and prudent. 

But it was not enough that Nature and Providence 
should thus suggest the person and nature of the only 
true God. It might have been sufficient had our spirits 
remained in perfect health and well attuned to the Divine 
harmonies ; but, with perceptions dulled by sin — with 
earthly and sensual impulses complicating the intimations 
of immortality, with a secret and malicious foe at hand to 
mislead and to destroy— this personal suggestiveness of 
nature and providence could never bring us to a saving 
knowledge of the truth of God. We must either have 
new powers of perception bestowed upon us, or the ob- 
ject to be perceived must come nearer to us. This is 
what has taken place, and the great object of the incar- 
nation is to teach us the knowledge of the only true God in 
the person of Jesus Christ. Here God comes into direct 
personal contact with men — spirit to spirit, and heart to 
heart We are no longer left to the hints of feeble reason 



Knowledge is Lite. 



261 



— we are in the presence of a person surrounded with all 
the familiar limits of personality. 

In this way God brings Himself within the reach of our 
personal powers of apprehension. What these powers 
are it is not easy to define. The unconscious reason is 
no doubt included, but there is something further — some- 
thing still more subtile. There is a strange influence pro- 
ceeding from a personal presence — a kind of surrounding 
atmosphere or medium, through which, without sign or 
word, there may pass a recognition, a thought, a feeling. 
The most marvellous phenomenon of this kind in history 
is the influence of the personal character of Jesus Christ, 
who was God, manifest in the flesh. From Him there 
went an influence that brought out all other characters, 
and revealed the secrets of all hearts. The poor and suffer- 
ing felt that there was sympathy and help in Him. The 
proud and hypocritical and resolute in sin felt in Him an 
irreconcilable antagonist • the publicans and outcasts, in 
whom remained a germ of goodness, felt in Him a power 
to pardon and save. Even the honest sceptics who went 
to hear Him, full of hostile prejudice, came away saying, 
" Never man spake like this man." His own disciples 
were drawn to Him and held by Him through this personal 
influence and attachment. They did not understand Him, 
but they knew Him, and in Christ Jesus our Lord they 
learned to love God with that love from which in after 
years "not life nor death nor any other creature could 
separate them." 

It is impossible for us to gain the knowledge of God in ex- 
actly the same way as did the personal followers of Jesus 
Christ, nevertheless the same knowledge is for us. The life 
of Christ was the point of time when the flame of the know- 



262 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



ledge and love of God touched the great heart of man- 
kind. It is the same flame that has passed from heart to 
heart, and from age to age. They saw, and believed and 
loved ; but our blessedness is none the less, but rather 
greater, who have not seen, yet do believe; and our 
loyalty is just as reverent and true to Him " whom not 
having seen we love." But yet God has not taken His 
presence from us. When the Incarnate One returned to 
the bosom of the Father, He did not leave us orphans 
and comfortless. We, too, have a real presence, a fellow- 
ship with God, one even more expedient for us than 
the continued presence of Christ in the flesh. Now it is 
not only on the shore of Galilee, or in the temple, or in the 
garden, or on the mountain top that we know the per- 
sonal presence, but through the gift of the Holy Ghost, lo ! 
to the end of the earth He is with us always, His spirit 
witnesses with ours, and we have fellowship with the 
Father and the Son. By the presence of God in the 
person of Jesus Christ the light and flame of the know- 
ledge and love of God were kindled in a few hearts, but 
in the gift of the Holy Ghost there is a personal presence 
through all time and amongst all generations, to feed the 
light and blow upon the flame. 

In the manner in which the Holy Spirit holds com- 
munion with ours there is no doubt much that is mysterious. 
There was mystery in the way in which the spirit of Christ 
influenced the minds and hearts of men. There is mys- 
tery even in the way in which the mere presence of one 
human spirit influences another ; but let us not confound 
the mysterious working of spiritual powers with the arbi- 
trary lawlessness of magic and the hocus-pocus of supersti- 
tion. When we understand the strange though perfectly 



Knowledge is Life. 



263 



natural working of our own spirit, then we may be in a 
better position to study the operation of the Holy Ghost. 
Meantime we can only feel the power thereof, though we 
may not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. 
III. It remains for us to consider the influence 

OF THIS EXPERIMENTAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ON HUMAN 

character and destiny : " This is Eternal Life." 

A moment ago we were talking of mysteries. Here is 
another mystery. I do not mean eternal life, but this 
mortal physical life. Who can tell us what it is ? And 
yet we all know that it is, and that it is in us. We know 
some of the powers of life, some of its conditions, some 
things hostile to life, and others friendly ; but life itself is 
an unknown power, and perhaps unknowable. Can we 
expect less difficulty in understanding spiritual life ? 

Knowledge is life. Take food, and warmth, and light and 
air from the living body, take from it all freedom of motion 
and what then becomes of the animal life ? Take faith, and 
hope, and love from the soul, oppress it with a sense of 
impotence, and guilt and self-contempt, and steep it in 
sensual passions, and what then becomes of the spiritual 
life ? It is lost, hopelessly and forever, in eternal death. 
My dear brethren, do not take this for the language of a 
preacher who is bound to employ such forms of expression, 
and bent on bringing facts of human experience into 
harmony with a system of theology. Let me ask you to 
look at the facts for yourselves, and then as wise men 
judge ye what I say, and tell me if I am wrong in pro- 
nouncing the soul dead that is without God and without 
hope. There is no grasp of faith in the arm, no light of 
hope in the eye, no warmth and throb of love in the heart. 
The form erect, and upward look of lordly independence 



264 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



and moral purity are stricken, bleeding, crushed under the 
weight of conscious guilt and conscious impotence. 
There is no vital energy to resist unfriendly, unspiritual 
forces, and the higher life corrupts into all that is earthly, 
sensual, devilish, just as the dead body rots into living 
worms. Oh tell me is not such a man dead while he yet 
liveth — more dead than should he cease to be ? 

Now see how the knowledge of God brings life to such 
a soul, and how, at the touch of Christ, who is the Life, 
that soul is raised from the dead. The first symptom of 
returning life by the power of Jesus is a painful sense of 
sin and holiness. The awakened soul looks on Him who 
is fairer than the sons of men, holy, harmless, undefiled, 
and then for the first time realizes his own foul and deadly 
malady. He has a sense of purity, but yet he finds him- 
self chained to corruption, and he cries out in bitterness 
and horror, " O wretched man that I am ; who shall de- 
liver me from this body of death ? ; ' Again he looks to 
the Holy One, and now T he sees more than holiness — he 
sees pity and power to save, and invitation. In agony 
between despair within and hope in the Christ so pure 
and strong, yet pitiful, the soul dares to lift its wild eyes 
and search the face of God in Christ. Inspired by that 
look, faith breaks from dead despair with the loud and 
living cry, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me 
whole." And now the dead ears are unlocked with the 
sweet words of healing and forgiveness, " I will, be thou 
clean, go thy way and sin no more." Oh the blessedness 
of the hour when the soul first comes to this knowledge of 
God in Christ, realizes the atoning love and the forgiving 
grace, and lives I 

Then begins the great work of love, the work of trans- 



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265 



forming the sinner into the image of God the Saviour. 
The saved and pardoned soul is filled with a new and 
vital power, the power of an endless life — even of love for 
God that must make the soul like God. It is often said, 
simply and truly, of a good and noble man, "You have 
only to know him to love him." With infinitely greater 
force is this true of the knowledge and the love of God. 
In Jesus Christ whom God hath sent we learn the bound- 
less love and goodness of God, and thus learn to love 
Him because He hath first loved us. It is also a law of 
our nature that we are assimilated to the character of the 
object loved. I can therefore think of no greater calamity 
in life, or of anything more disastrous to the character, 
than the constant admiring love of an unworthy object. 
So, on the other hand, I can think of no greater blessing 
in life than the intimate knowledge and true love of some 
being of transparent truthfulness and goodness. How the 
one life seems to transfuse and purify the other ! to in- 
spire it with its own power, and grace it with its own 
tenderness ! Even so by the love of God in Christ Jesus 
our Lord do we become partakers of the divine nature, 
and grow up into Him in all things. 

Eternal life is the natural and fitting destiny of these 
souls thus filled with the knowledge and love of God. 
God gave His son to death that He might develop in us 
the powers of life and immortality, and now so long as 
God Himself shall live, must they live who are created 
anew in the image of God in righteousness and true 
holiness. 



THE IMPARTIALITY OF GOD'S LOVE. 



SERMON XV. 

By the REV. JAMES ROY, M.A. 

" With good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to men : 
knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall 
he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." — Ephesians 
vi. 7, 8. 

NDER the stern rule of the ancient empires, 
the individual life was of little importance. 
Men existed for the state, not the state for 
men. Christianity came appealing to the in- 
dividual heart, and made the state feel its 
power in the slow, but certain, processes of 
an indirect influence. 
Its promises of liberty were misinterpreted ; and some, 
whom fortune had placed in a subordinate position, 
thought themselves justified in severing bonds that ap- 
peared inconsistent with the importance Christian teach- 
ing attached to each separate soul. 

The text was penned, doubtless, to correct such misap- 
prehensions, and to show that, while master and servant 




The Impartiality of God's Love, 267 

were alike important before God, the conventional arrange- 
ments of society are not to be suddenly disregarded, and 
that the great ends of life were as easily attainable in its 
humble walks as in those apparently superior. It teaches : 

I. The impartiality of God's love ; and 

II. The bearing of this principle on our ordi- 
nary LIFE. 

I. God's impartial love. 

1. It is 7iot confined to particular forms of goodness. — 
Society crystallizes into various forms. Men of similar 
tastes aggregate. No theories of comprehensive or universal 
unity have prevented this ; and none can do so. Even 
Romanism has witnessed within its own pale Dominicans 
and Franciscans, Jesuits and Port Royalists, Old Catho- 
lics and Ultramontanes, rising and contending for their 
peculiarities with a virulence often beyond all the polemics 
of Protestantism. 

In both these great divisions of Christianity, each com- 
munity stamps with marks of peculiar favour the forms of 
goodness to which itself is attached. 

One sect is distinguished by a highly metaphysi- 
cal theology, and by stern uprightness in business. 
Another is strongly emotional. Another sect (for even 
Bishop Heber, in his life of Jeremy Taylor, calls it 
such) loves beauty of form and rite ; and is kind to its 
poor. Yet another devotes itself to labours of a humani- 
tarian character, fighting hard battles with political and 
social wrongs. Where no overshadowing thought of one- 
ness under a common head reminds each body of the 
brotherhood of the other, the world rings with anathemas. 
The Roundhead sees in the service of the Cavaliers 
nothing but the forms of a hated apostacy from the truth. 



268 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



The Cavalier finds, in the narrow and wordy Puritans, 
nothing but cant and hypocrisy. Orthodox and Heterodox 
slight each other's mode of serving God. " Wars of Suc- 
cession," less bloody, perhaps, than those of politics, but 
none the last disastrous, disturb the calm of Christian 
charity. The value of good men's toils is measured by 
artificial standards \ and the Christian world forgets, in 
the absence of a true appreciation of the love that holds 
the star and carves the microscopic shell, that " whatso- 
ever good thing " falls from human heart, or lip, or hand, 
falls on the sympathetic breast of the great Father of all 
goodness, and rises, like Antaeus, with redoubled strength. 
Yet, unlike Antaeus, it is strangled by no Hercules, but 
lives with an undying power to bless. 

But, what is a " good thing?'' Service done " as to 
the Lord, and not to men," not done to the Lord, but "as 
to the Lord," ordinary acts of service, in our daily occu- 
pations, done as if we did them, nor for the men we serve, 
but for the Lord Christ himself. 

To abstain from vice, and to be useful, from " natural " 
or constitutional indisposition to the opposite, is not a 
bad thing, but, it is not religion. To act from prudent re- 
gard for consequences to wealth, or family, or reputation, 
is commendable ; but it is not religion. When, however, 
a sense of duty to God enters into a man's motives he 
passes from morality to religion. His is not the most 
matured experience of religious life ; Christianity offers to 
him one much more glorious ; but he is a religious man, 
and the " good thing " which receives God's blessing is 
his. 

2. It is not confined to particular classes of men. 

We classify all things. Memory needs that thoughts 



The Impartiality of God's Love. 269 

and things be grouped and labelled. The laws of mind 
and matter are learned from classifications. But our 
grouping needs frequent revision, lest we fall into ridicu- 
lous and dangerous errors. The mind must ever be open 
to the reception of new facts. These facts often alter our 
previous classifications, overturn long-cherished theories, 
and demolish definitions once regarded as infallible. 
How often has the world's fate hung upon a definition ! 
Where the term " The Church " conveys the idea of an 
organization, the limits of which are cognizable by the 
observation of men, how arbitrary are the classifications 
thence resulting ! Where " Faith " conveys only the idea 
of a code of doctrines and belief in them, how few can be 
classified as believers ! Yet men have based their classi- 
fications of their fellows on such narrow definitions as 
these, and have robbed life of its cheerfulness, driving the 
conscientious into fanaticism and turning the zealous into 
persecutors, till hearts have ached and the world has been 
red with the blood of martyrs. They have closed 
their ears to the warbling of birds and the hum of playful 
insects. They have heard no cheerful sounds in the sum- 
mer breeze, and have not seen the smiles that play upon 
the rose-bud, the leafy hill and the waving gram. Nought 
have they heard but the wails of ruined mortals, and little 
have they seen but the steady march of millions to the 
pit. Life has its shadows, it is true ; but life is not all 
shadow. "Whatsoever good thing any man doeth.' ; 
Thank God for the words ! Let the imprisoned spirits of 
the past ages hear them, and come forth to liberty ! Let 
light youth and hoary years hear them, and take courage ! 
Let the ignorant of our crowded cities hear them, and 
know that God is love ! Let the most despised sects hear 



270 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



them, and learn that if man cast them out, the Lord forgets 
not their stumbling efforts to serve Him ! Let the weak 
and trembling know that "any man" may have Heaven's 
blessing if he acts " as to the Lord, and not to men." 
II. The bearing of this truth on our ordinary 

LIFE. 

1 . would infuse a religious spirit into the world's work. 
The world wants not so much what are called " religious " 
orders and work as secular work done in a religious spirit, 
not so much churchliness as Christlikeness. Books on 
pious experience, men devoted to purely church work, 
times spent in prayer and public assemblings for hearing 
the word, all are necessary ; but the conversion of the 
world needs a piety that can live on in heavenly purity 
where there are no pious books and public prayers. It 
needs a goodness that remembers the Lord Christ on the 
deck of the lake or ocean steamer, in the foreign port and 
on the railway train. It needs a piety whose counting- 
house may be a church and whose ledger may be a liturgy. 

Let men feel that their daily life may be religious, that 
their shops and factories may be churches and oratories, 
and it may be that honesty will take the place of fraud, 
frankness the place of duplicity, and a universal respect 
for God the place of widespread impurity and selfishness. 

2. // would encourage life's weary toilers. Disgrace is 
unintentionally being cast on toil, both by Romanist and 
Protestant. The Romanist, by his fites d 1 obligation, 
spreads the idea that work and piety are somewhat irre- 
concilable ; the Protestant, by his, or rather her, ideas of 
respectability, casts disgrace upon work. Daughters of 
artisans and fishermen ape the idleness of an imaginary 
aristocracy, and sap the foundations of our morals and our 



The Impartiality of God's Love. 



271 



life. Let them know that heaven lies at the end of the 
pathway of work, and the longings of the heart for the 
home beyond will reconcile them to the needful toil, 
civilization will not degenerate into corruption, men will 
not be driven to dishonesty to maintain women in idle- 
ness, and youth will not find celibate vice more attractive 
than wedded virtue. 

We sometimes sing, when persons crowd our commu- 
nion rails, seeking for God's forgiveness, " There are 
angels hovering round," but are the angels there only ? 
While the young storeman takes down his rolls of cloth, 
his boxes of lace, his ribands and spools, displays them 
to fastidious customers, smiles when his heart cannot 
smile, and puts the rejected goods away, smiling again 
upon the heartless woman who has wearied him for 
nought, but does it all because the Lord requires it as his 
daily sacrifice — are there no angels there ? Is there no 
message of duty done for God carried upward to the 
skies ? Is there no note in heaven's memorandum-book 
of holy deeds to be rewarded ? When the weary woman 
in her kitchen toils amid odours, not of Edom, and hardens 
the hands that would be soft but cannot, and does all be- 
cause the Lord has made it her part of life, do no angels 
hover there ? Oh ! you of velvet palm and lily brow, little 
do you know how much of glory lies, germ-like, in such 
self-sacrificing toil. " With good-will" are these doing 
their service as to the Lord, and the day of their redemp- 
tion draweth nigh ! 

3. // would elevate our piety. I take no gloomy view 
of the world's piety. I quarrel not with its emotionalism 
and its creeds. Its piety is grand and growing. Its piety 
is the grandest of all the ages. But it needs a larger cha 



272 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



rity. It has not the width of the heart of God about it. 
It is learning to love, but it has not yet forgotten to hate. 
It trembles at the sweet music of Divine compassion, lest, 
perchance, the notes should be too loving for its narrow 
sympathies. It confesses that all goodness comes from 
the Omnipresent Spirit through the Almighty Son ; but it 
looks upon the goodness with timid eyes unless that good- 
ness is clothed in its ecclesiasticism. It acknowledges 
that the gift of spiritual life has been given to all; but it 
cannot fully recognise that life as spiritual when the intel- 
lectual has not had a corresponding development. 

When the dew is forming on the grass, there is no blade 
too small to carry its little bead of beauty ; and far must it 
be from atmospheric influences, if it sparkle not gloriously 
when the sun arises. The human blades of grass that 
cover the earth are often deformed, and twisted, and 
crowded out of shape ; and many of them hide themselves 
where neither the sun nor the air of heaven can ever reach 
them; but, amongst the millions that drink the sweet in- 
fluences of God, it is not the field in which he grows, nor 
the shape he may have taken, that will prevent any one 
from wearing a sparkling crown when the Sun of Right- 
teousness arises with healing in His wings. 



THE MISSION OF JESUS 



SERMON XVI. 

By REV. LEROY HOOKER. 

"Iam come that they might have life, and that they might have 
it more abundantly. " — John x. io. 

^HEN our Lord and Saviour proposed to His 
disciples the question, " What think ye of 
Christ ? " He proposed a question of deeper 
meaning than will appear to the careless 
student of Holy Writ. 

The testimony of history goes to show 
that the temporal prosperity of nations is due, not so 
much to any circumstance of race, soil, climate or com- 
mercial situation as it is to what the great heart of the 
nation thinks and feels concerning Christ. Take two ex- 
amples with which every one is familiar. 

When God, in rewarding the faith of Abraham, made 
choice of the country to be given to his seed He chose the 
land of Canaan ; a goodly land, flowing with milk and 
honey. In due time He planted them in that garden of the 
world, and, save when their disobedience provoked the 

R 




274 Fhe Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



rod, cherished them with His choicest blessings. What 
fulness of strength, what heights of glory were possible to 
that favoured people may be seen by viewing their state 
in the palmy days of David and Solomon. Rich, contented 
and happy at home, respected, and even beloved abroad > 
the sweet prophetic vision of the great lawgiver was fulfilled, 

j Happy art thou, O Israel ; who is like unto thee, O peo- 
ple saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, the sword 
of thy excellency ! " In the fulness of time Christ " came 
to His own " — came with words and deeds proper to the 
Son of God — came with miracles in the one hand and 
mercy in the other; but "His own received Him not" 
They thought Him an impostor, or professed so to think, and 
rejected Him with disdain. It is easy to see that in re- 
jecting Him they rejected their national life. Ever since 
that unhappy day they have wandered, exiles and aliens, 
in many foreign lands — a scorn and a hissing to some, a 
grief and a warning to most of their fellow-men. And the 
glory which adorned them while they were true to God, 
which they doubtless would have kept, had they accepted 
the new dispensation, has for eighteen hundred years 
rested in some part of the Gentile world, and, in that part 
where the Christ of God has been most honoured. For 
our second example, and one which presents a happy con- 
trast, we turn with glad and grateful hearts to the past and 
present of our honoured and beloved mother land. Eng- 
land, though not faultless, has, more than any other na- 
tion, imbibed the spirit of Christianity, and been true to 

ts interests — in fact has accepted Christ as the Son of God; 
and on that foundation has built, sometimes, indeed, 
straw and stubble, but more often her gold, silver and 
precious stones. And who cannot see that the gates of 



The Mission of Jesus. 



275 



prosperity and power have been opened to her by the 
hand of God. During the last thousand years she has 
looked forth upon nations rising and falling like the waves 
of a troubled sea ; but has herself abode in strength in her 
little island home, and has sent forth her branches into 
the whole earth. 

It is by no means difficult to see the connection between 
national piety and national prosperity. Christianity exerts 
an ennobling influence on individual character, and so 
makes every man who embraces it a treasure to the nation 
— a salt which resists the natural tendency towards cor- 
ruption and decay. And, when it prevails to any consider- 
able degree in a nation, it secures the special covenant 
blessing of the Most High upon the national industries, 
councils and battles, if battles there must be. " Them 
that honour me I will honour, " saith the Lord. 

Raising our thoughts from the temporal welfare of men 
to their spiritual interests and eternal destinies, we find 
that Christ is still at the very foundation. He is " the 
good physician " of the soul. He has the " light of life." 
He is the " true God and eternal life." Beside Him there 
is no Saviour. Christ Jesus, and Him crucified, is "first 
and midst and last " in all that is most dear to men. 

The foregoing thoughts will not be lost if they help us 
to see and feel that the mission of Jesus to mankind is a 
subject above all others in importance ; that it has the 
strongest of claims upon the attention, sympathy and co- 
operation of every living man. Very ignorant or despe- 
rately wicked must be the child of Adam who professes 
that Christ and His mission on earth are, to him, matters 
of indifference. 

And if we are concerned with the whole subject, how 



276 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



much more with that particular part which relates to the 
gracious effects which Christ wishes to produce upon indi- 
vidual life, in order that, like Paul, we may " apprehend 
that for which also we are apprehended of Christ," and enter 
with hearty good will into His purposes. Perhaps in no pas- 
sage in the whole Bible are these purposes more clearly 
stated than in the one now before us : "I am come that 
they might have life, and that they might have it more 
abundantly." In this most precious announcement we 
have two principal parts to consider. 

I. He came that they might have life. 

It will help us to determine the exact meaning of these 
words if we, first of all, drop some constructions which 
seem at first correct ; but which, after closer test, are 
found to fall short of the full value of the statement made. 

For instance : there can be no reference here to Christ 
as the Creator of man's life. True, all things were made 
by Him ; but it was not necessary to the work of creation 
that He should "come" in the flesh, neither was that 
work of creation in any way connected with or dependant 
upon His coming. It was in the beginning that He, as the 
Word which was with God and which was God, made all 
things. It was after that great work was finished, and 
long after, that He was made flesh and dwelt among us. 

And again, I can see no sufficient reason for saying 
that this part of the text refers to the work of quickening 
dead souls into spiritual life. Christ is undoubtedly the 
author of that quickening ; but that subject is so mani- 
festly included in the other clause of the verse that I am 
forced to seek some other construction to put on this. It 
is scarcely to be supposed that the Great Teacher had no 
higher purpose in using this remarkable form of words 



The Mission of Jesus. 



277 



than to repeat in the second clause, for the sake of giving 
it emphasis, a doctrine which he had stated in the first. 
Nor will the language bear such a construction. It requires 
that the thing itself, life, shall be secured to His people by 
the " coming 99 of Christ ; and that by the same means it 
shall, afterwards, be developed to its abundance. 

If we drop these expositions, and they certainly fail to 
fathom the depth of the language, what did Jesus mean 
when He said, " I am come that they might have life." 
We are shut up to one conclusion. His " coming,'' in the 
office and work of Mediator, was a necessary condition to 
the propagation of the human race. In other words, if 
God had not resolved to provide a Redeemer for fallen 
man the race would not, nay, could not have been per- 
petuated. Let me here speak a little, and with much 
modesty, of certain great matters upon which God Him- 
self has spoken but sparingly — the creation, the first law, 
the sin, and the ruin of human kind. In the beginning 
God created man in His own image — in righteousness and 
true holiness. He gave him a law, not of many precepts, 
to define sin, for as yet man had no sin to define ; but of 
a single precept to serve as a limit to self-will, an assertion 
of the Divine prerogative, a test of loyalty to the Creator- 
Sovereign. The penalty of disobedience is death in all its 
forms — spiritual, physical and eternal death. That physi- 
cal death was included in the penalty is manifest in the 
very words of the doom which followed the transgression : 
" Unto dust shalt thou return." That law, so simple in 
its nature, so mild in its demands, was disobeyed. God's 
prerogative was denied. The high treason was committed 
Self-will was exalted. God's will was dishonoured. Spiri- 
tual death followed as a natural and necessary conse. 



278 The Canadian Methodist Fulpit. 



quence ; for the disobedience rendered man's nature con- 
trary to the nature of God. Purity and Peace, twin sisters, 
fled back to the bosom of God. The next event and, 
therefore, the last event in the earthly history of man 
would, naturally, have been the finishing stroke of the 
penalty — the death of the body and the setting of the 
broad seal of eternity upon the pollution and perdition 
of the offenders. 

But this procedure seems to have been unwelcome to 
the Judge. All His reasons we may not undertake to 
state ; but some of them lie in plain sight. Two deathless 
spirits — the work of His own hands — with all their high 
capabilities for holiness, and heaven, and God, must waste 
in endless moral ruin, must wail in outer darkness forever, if 
the blow is permitted to fall. And then, was the enemy to be 
permitted to boast that he had made a helpless, hopeless fail- 
ure of God's grandest earthly work? that he had driven holi- 
ness from the world ? that he had successfully balked what- 
ever purposes God had in view in creating man? Nay! The 
All-Merciful could not lightly abandon His own work to 
such a ruin. The Almighty was not yet overthrown, nor His 
plans confounded. All the Father and all the Majesty in 
Jehovah counselled an interference. He would gird Him- 
self like a man of war and go forth unto this battle. He 
would snatch the prey already captured from the very 
jaws of the devourer ; and He would destroy the evil work 
which the devil had wrought upon mankind, and continue 
the race that it should multiply on the earth. But how 
could He do this and remain true ? for He had said, " in 
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die/' And 
how, consistently with His justice ? for sin existed and 
cried aloud for its just recompense of reward. And how, 



The Mission of Jesus, 



279 



consistently with His goodness ? for to perpetuate a race 
of fallen and hopeless beings would be to perpetuate sin 
and misery, and multiply them as fast as He would permit 
such a race to multiply. Without a doubt, had it been 
possible to do no otherwise than to leave humanity under 
the undisputed empire of sin, the truth, the justice and 
the goodness of God alike, would have demanded the 
immediate execution of the penalty. The suppression of 
the race would have been involved as a necessary conse- 
quence, and the annals of mankind would then have been 
limited to the creation, the short-lived purity and happi- 
ness, the fall, the death and eternal perdition of Adam and 
Eve. 

Strong as were these reasons for cutting oif, at its foun- 
tain, the stream of humanity, they were all removed by 
the salvation provided in Christ. The seed of the woman 
was appointed to bruise the serpent's head and break the 
empire of sin. The Divine Majesty itself fixed and fur- 
nished a ransom of sufficient value to magnify and make 
honourable the law although its penalty should, in every 
vital respect, be suspended while the overtures of mercy 
were being made, and entirely removed from every peni- 
tent believer in Jesus. And the goodness, as well as the 
majesty of God, was well pleased that the race should 
multiply since its help was laid upon One who was 6 6 mighty 
to save." But had no such redemption been possible, or, 
being possible, had it been withheld, the penalty would 
have fallen upon the first transgressors in the day that 
they transgressed. In the light of these truths we are at 
no loss to see what Christ meant to teach when He 
said, " I am come that they might have life." We owe 
our existence to His redeeming work. 



2 So The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

XL He came that they might have it more abun- 
dantly. 

By the life more abundant I understand a life developed 
to its utmost capability, and thence derive the doctrine 
that it is Christ's purpose to develop to perfectness the 
life He has been the means of securing to us. Here two 
questions arise, the answers to which will sufficiently ex- 
haust this part of the subject. 

First. By what means does Christ reach and influence 
our life ? A few words will be enough upon a subject 
with which every Bible reader is familiar. In His Word, 
of doctrine, and precept, and promise, we are instructed 
what to believe, to hope for, and to do. In the life of the 
" man Christ Jesus," we are shown a perfect model for 
our lives. Our infirmities of mind and heart are helped 
by the Holy Ghost, whom he sends from the Father. But 
principally we are affected by the atonement for our sins, 
made by His death. Without this, the most powerful ap- 
peal to our hearts would have been lacking — repentance 
would have been unavailing — the grace of conversion 
would have been impossible, and our life, here and here- 
after, would have been an experience of uninterrupted sin 
and misery. 

Second. To what extent does Christ affect our life ? 
The beneficent hand of Christianity touches our life in 
every department and develops it to abundance. 

It promotes the healthy and prolonged existence of the body. 
What are the conditions of health and length of days ? 
Manifestly that a man should be temperate, contented, 
industrious, free from hereditary disease, and safe from 
violence. These being the conditions of an abundant 
physical life no one can fail to see that Christianity is cal- 



The Mission of Jesus. 



281 



culated to give it, for it supplies all the conditions. The 
disciple of Jesus can be neither a glutton nor a drunkard, 
nor indeed a voluptuary in any sense \ but, on the con- 
trary, must be temperate in all things. More than any 
other type of man he is also free from those anxieties 
which fret the mind to the hurt of the body. As for his 
best things, his treasure and his home, they lie beyond the 
reach of earthly commotion and peril, in the " city that 
hath foundations." And what of care for temporal things 
would otherwise fall with crushing weight upon his mind, he 
is permitted to cast upon God ; and is assured that, even 
to his daily bread, God careth for him. At the same time 
idleness is not permitted to enfeeble his physical powers. 
He must work with his own hands, and provide for all 
properly dependent upon him, or be counted worse than 
an infidel. This tendency of the Christian religion to hus- 
band human life would scarcely ever be defeated by her- 
editary diseases, had the progenitors, near and remote, 
been practical Christians. It is now known that most of 
that class of diseases are the offspring of sinful indulgen- 
ces which the precepts of Christ, had they been obeyed, 
would have prevented. Nor would the life of a Christian 
man ever be cut short of its natural period by the hand of 
violence, if all other men were Christians. There would 
then be no one in all the world to slay him. In short, if 
all mankind would embrace and practise the religion of 
Christ, it would do more than all the medicines and laws 
in the world to give health and long life to our physical 
nature. We should then, as a rule, die of old age. 

develops to its highest capability the human intellect. 
If no explanation of the manner could be given, the fact 
would still remain indisputable. In judging of a general 



2§2 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit 



principle like this we must not compare individuals, in 
whom essential difference of circumstances might defeat 
the object of the comparison, but masses, in each of which 
there will be found a sufficient number in equal circum- 
stances to afford ground for a correct estimate of the 
forces which have made them to differ. Take, then, those 
nations in which Christianity exists in its purest form — 
say the English and American, and compare them with 
the masses of the heathen world. Is it not beyond dis- 
pute that in all matters requiring the use of intellect — in 
agriculture, mechanical and fine arts, commerce and sci- 
ence — the advantage is, to an almost unlimited extent, 
with the people who have been developed under the in- 
fluences of the Christian religion. And let it be remem- 
bered, just here, that the theories of art and nature, which 
have given to Christian nations such pre-eminence, were 
not, like their religion, a revelation of matters otherwise 
beyond their reach ; but were gradually evolved from the 
innate resources of the human mind itself. And let due 
weight be allowed for the fact that in every case where 
the Gospel of Jesus has been given to a debased heathen 
nation, and has taken any strong hold on the national 
mind — as in the case of New Zealand, the Sandwich and 
Friendly Islands, and Madagascar, there has been a 
mighty quickening of intellect, and a rapid progress to- 
wards the excellencies of nations older in Christianity. 
From these premises the conclusion is unavoidable that 
the religion of Christ is calculated to stimulate the human 
intellect to its noblest efforts — to push it forward to the 
highest degree of perfection of which it is capable. It is 
confessedly easier to see the fact than to explain the man- 
ner; yet even here one may venture to speak a little. 



The Mission of Jesus. 



Christian benevolence demands that intellect shall bend 
itself to the task of wresting from art and nature the best 
means of relieving the sufferings of mankind. Christian 
piety invites the aid of intellect, that she may the better 
understand and admire the wisdom and glory of God, as 
manifested in the works of nature. Christian zeal makes 
intellect her right hand in all "works of faith and labours 
of love." Christian wisdom, in making up her treasure for 
eternity, knows that she is limited to two things — character 
and knowledge ; and assures her disciple that what he is 
and what he knows is all he can take with him when he 
goes hence. 

But Christianity does much more than stimulate. No 
one can estimate the debt 3 we owe the sacred scriptures 
for the revelation of the unity of God, and, therefore, the 
unity of design and law throughout the universe. The 
heathen student of nature referred each department of 
his subject to a separate creator; and these he believed 
to be, not only independent of each other, but often an- 
tagonistic. How different the aspect nature presents to 
the Christian student ! One Being, infinite in skill and 
power, produced the whole — from the grain of sand to 
the grandest orb of heaven, from the insect to the arch- 
angel. The rudiments, when once attained, apply all 
round the universe, and unlock a thousand things in na- 
ture which were inscrutable to the man of many gods. 
Most of all, the expansion of the human intellect is due 
to its frequent contemplations of the exalted character of 
God, as He is revealed to us in the Bible. There are few 
who have not listened to the charms of music, or surren- 
dered themselves to the inspirations of poetry, or stood en- 
tranced by a magnificent landscape, or dwelt in wrapt ad- 



284 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



miration upon some rare instance of human goodness and 
greatness, until the soul expanded quite beyond its former 
bounds, and conceived for itself never-to-be-forgotten 
truth and beauty and goodness. What, then, must the 
effect be of daily and adoring contemplation of Him who 
is the perfection of goodness and glory, of truth and ma- 
jesty? 

In such exercises the tendency of the intellect is ever- 
more upward to the heights beyond — heights which rise 
in succession to the adoring gaze of the beholder and, 
though towering far beyond the reach of his finite vision, 
enrich him with truth, and expand his mind to its utmost 
capacity. 

Furnishing such motives, removing some serious hind- 
rances to the successful pursuit of knowledge, and intro- 
ducing a subject so well calculated to enlarge the scope 
of mental action as the existence, character, and perfec- 
tions of an infinite Creator and Governor of the universe, 
it is not so difficult after all to see how it is that Christi- 
anity promotes, to abundance, our intellectual life. 

// is the source of our spiritual life. The highest use of our 
faculties is to employ them in knowing, loving and serving 
God, our Maker and Benefactor. But alas for us ! in this re- 
spect we are by nature dead. So far as this, the highest use 
of our faculties is concerned, we might as well have no 
understanding — no heart, no powers, for we withhold 
them from God. Like the body of Lazarus our faculties 
are, in the sight of our Lord, dead and corrupted. And 
there we all lie, dead in trespasses and sins — estranged 
from God and at enmity with His law — until the voice 
which quickened Lazarus cries at the door of our moral 
sepulchre : "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the 



The Mission of Jesus. 



285 



dead." Here Christ is the Alpha and Omega. If repent- 
ance and remission of sins are preached to us, it is because 
Christ hath suffered, the just for the unjust, that He might 
bring us to God. If we have truth that makes us free, it 
is the truth as it is in Jesus. If we have the work and wit- 
ness of the Holy Ghost in our souls, it is by our Lord 
Jesus that He is sent from the Father. If we love Him, it 
is because He first loved us, and gave Himself for us. 
The degree of abundance to which Christ is able to de- 
velop our spiritual life may be seen partially in the at- 
tainments of well-advanced Christians, and perfectly in 
the too often unexhausted promises of the gospel. 

First of all, a divinely-wrought conviction of sin in him- 
self, and of mercy in God, moves the sinner to repentance. 
Turning to God and seeking mercy, his sins, though 
many and great, are all forgiven — and so forgiven that 
they shall nevermore be mentioned to him if he turn not 
again unto folly. With the pardon comes the witness of 
the Holy Spirit with his spirit that he is a child of God, 
and a radical change in the tendencies of his nature. 
Before, his heart was a rich, capable soil, whose resources 
were prostituted to the bringing forth of useless and 
noxious weeds ; now, it is regenerated, and the seed of 
God remaineth in it as the germ of holiness. By that 
germ the forces of his being are thenceforth to be taken 
up and assimilated ; and from it shall spring up holiness 
to the Lord — first the blade, then the ear, then the full 
corn in the ear. Then, and not till then, the soul ex- 
periences the ecstacies of living. It has passed from 
death unto life — it has entered upon the high calling for 
which it was created — it has come home to God. " Unto 
the uttermost/' that our capacities for the knowledge and 



286 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

love of God will allow, is the measure of the abundance 
to which Christ desires to increase our spiritual life. 

// develops our three-fold life to a still richer abundance 
in heaven. It is a part of Christianity to go to heaven 
— and if you look upon a man who from " youth to hoary 
age " has been growing and ripening under its in- 
fluence, and is now ready to depart, you see one with 
whom Christ has only begun — the real abundance of his 
life is yet to come. The body, which was preserved to a 
green old age by the favouring influences of the Christian 
religion, shall, in the resurrection, be made altogether im- 
mortal. Labour shall no more cause weariness and waste. 
Hunger and thirst, disease and decay, shall no more prey 
upon it ; for, like unto Christ's glorious body, it will pos- 
sess immortal youth and vigour and beauty. The mind, 
which was stimulated and helped in its upward progress 
on earth, will then be placed in still happier circumstances. 
With a perception and memory unimpaired by physical 
infirmities, in the society of the elder sons of God who 
w r ere present and shouted for joy when the foundations of 
the earth were laid, and, best of all, in full communication 
with God Himself through the medium of Christ's human- 
ity, one day will be better than, a thousand, in even our 
most renowned seats of learning. And there will, of 
necessity, be an abundant increase of spiritual life. If to 
live spiritually is to consecrate all our powers to the living 
service of God, then the Christian must live a higher life in 
heaven than he did on earth. He will have more to give 
and less difficulty in giving it, and will there understand, 
as he never did before, the glorious majesty and the 
loving kindness of the Lord, and will there appreciate, 
as he never could on earth, all he has escaped and all he 



The Mission of Jesus. 



287 



has gained through the sacrifice of the Son of God. He 
will there realize, as he never did before, his indebted- 
ness to the Holy Ghost, who, in the life below, was his 
guide and comforter and sanctifier. And as he presents 
his glorified body and soul at the foot of the throne as a 
living and eternal sacrifice to God, he will be able to sing 
with a depth of meaning before unkown : — 

" Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small ; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 

Demands my life, my soul, my all." 

There remains one more thought to add. If we can 
grasp the " Forever " of that life in heaven, we shall then 
be able to measure its abundance. Here we fail utterly, 
but we will not complain of our inability. The treasure 
we cannot count, the inheritance we cannot measure, the 
life which exceeds in its abundance " all that we are able 
to ask or to think" is our own. And let us never forget 
how we came by it. God so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on 
Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

The practical lessons which flow from this subject are 
of the first importance to the world. 

1. It teaches the philanthropist the best way to reduce the 
sufferings of men. Help to Christianize them, and, as far 
as you succeed, you will prevent most of the hunger, 
nakedness and disease, both of mind and body, by which 
they are afflicted. If it is a charity to relieve these, it is 
a thousand charities to prevent them ; and that not only 
to the first individuals so benefited, but to their progeny, 
to the latest generations. Dig out the roots of evil and 



288 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



you will save yourself the annual labour of lopping off the 
branches. 

2. It teaches the patriot how to promote the highest good 
of his nation. Plant in its very heart " the law of the 
spirit of life in Christ Jesus," and the result will be— as it 
ever has been — physical, intellectual and moral excellence 
— the most essential conditions of national prosperity. 
And to these will certainly be added the blessing of God, 
which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow. 

3. It teaches the pastor his duty to the flock. In the 
first part of this chapter Christ speaks of Himself as the 
great chief shepherd. He says, " I am the good shepherd, 
I lay down my life for the sheep that they might have 
life, and that they might have it more abundantly." He 
also speaks of other kinds of shepherds. Some come un- 
sent, on purpose to prey upon the flock, to kill and to de- 
stroy. Others come to work for wages — mere hirelings, 
having no love for the flock. In any time of danger to 
their comfort, their income or their lives, they will desert, 
and leave the sheep to the mercies of the devouring wolf. 
Brother, permit me to lay myself at your feet and entreat 
you to copy the spirit and example of the Good Shepherd. 
Our true reward is not represented in personal comfort 
nor in long life. If faithful in our work we shall, at the 
very least, have the Master's " well done " — if successful 
in it we shall have souls, redeemed and glorified souls, for 
our hire. Failing of these we lose our wages. Granted 
that our work is severe ; that our income is, in some cases, 
scanty ; that our itinerancy presses hard upon some of the 
tenderest sensibilities of our nature ; what are all these 
things compared with the fact that our branch of the 
flock of Christ flourishes. Our people, as a rule, live well 



The Mission of Jesus. 



289 



and die well, and they are our joy and our crown. We 
are labourers together with Christ to promote in them the 
abundance of life, and with Him shall we share the great 
reward when they are presented, without spot, unto God. 
We shall do well then to remember that, in this case, the 
shepherd exists for the flock and not the flock for the 
shepherd. 

4. It teaches the flock their great indebtedness to the 
Chief Shepherd. Your existence, your salvation from sin, 
your fulness of love, joy, and peace, your victory over 
death, and your assurance of the far more exceeding and 
eternal fulness of life in the world to come — these are the 
items whose sum will express the measure of your obli- 
gation to Christ. O see that you live unto Him. Let it 
not be your old, sinful self, but Christ, that liveth in you. 
And let me here say a word to you concerning your obli- 
gations to the under shepherds ; for we also, in a subor- 
dinate sense, are come to minister to you the abundance 
of life. While you give your best love where it belongs — 
to Jesus, don't forget that you owe something to the men 
who, under His leadership, are labouring for your salvation. 
And don't think that it is merely a money obligation. 
There are some things connected with our work to which 
money has no relation. It has no relation to the higher 
benefits you derive from our ministry — nor to the burden 
of souls— nor to the periodical severing of our dearest 
friendships — nor to the pain of leaving the graves of our 
wives and children to be kept green by the hand of the 
stranger. Brethren, we have a claim upon you for some- 
thing more than food and raiment. Give us the comfort 
of knowing that we are highly " esteemed in love for our 
work's sake/' In all that we are called to suffer give us 
s 



290 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



your brotherly sympathies. And, " brethren, pray for us" 
that the word of the Lord may have free course and be 
glorified. 

5. It teaches the impenitent sinner how ungrateful and 
ruinous a thing it is to reject Christ. Already He has 
given you life, yet you flee from Him as though He were a 
messenger of death. He pursues you through all down- 
ward paths in which you are seeking death, and every day 
cries in your ears, "turn ! turn! for why will you die?" 
With loving force He tries to press into your diseased 
and famished soul the balm of Gilead and the bread of 
life, but you shut and bolt the door. O my brethren, 
what will you do by and by ? Before you lie the valley 
and shadow of death, the swellings of Jordan, and the 
judgment seat of Christ. "O seek the Lord while He may 
be found. Call upon Him while He is near." Lay hold 
on eternal life while it is yet in your reach. And make 
haste, for your life is but a vapour, and will soon be gone. 
Open now the door, and Christ will come in and sup 
with you, and you shall sup with Him ; and that feast 
shall nourish you unto life eternal. 



GLORYING IN RELIGION. 



SERMON XVII. 

By REV. E. A. STAFFORD, Montreal. 

' ' Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, 
neither the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man 
glory in his riches : But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he 
understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise 
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth : for in 
these things I delight, saith the Lord." — Jeremiah ix,, 23, 24. 

JL r 

$E see here the relative importance of the 
things which occupy the largest place in the 
thoughts of men. 

Wisdom, power and riches receive men ; s 
chief attention in life ; but they are all 
f\ 2 secondary to true religion. They may law- 
fully be sought after with moderation ; they may be pos- 
sessed and enjoyed ; but not gloried in. The religion 
which consists in the true knowledge of God is alone wor- 
thy of man's glorying. The study of this text reveals 
religion placed in this grand preeminence. 

I. Let us study the character and value of the 

FOUR THINGS PLACED BEFORE US IN CONTRAST. 




292 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



II. Let us illustrate the idea of glorying, and 

SEE HOW RELIGION ALONE IS WORTHY OF THAT DISTINC- 
TION. 

1. Wisdom is brought before us. This is a high en- 
dowment, a copy of an attribute in the Divine nature by 
the direction of which the worlds were formed, the parts 
of the vast universe perfectly harmonized to each other? 
and the whole subjected to a most beneficent system of 
government. Wisdom in man has accomplished results 
worthy of so distinguished an endowment. Applied to 
science it has made discoveries exceedingly beneficial to 
men in every department of life ; applying itself to art it 
has developed mechanical inventions by which the ex- 
haustive manual labour, which was before a tax upon every 
useful industry, has been mostly removed. In serving the 
convenience of the world it has brought space within its 
embrace, and provided for the dissemination of thought to 
the ends of the earth. The observatory of the astronomer, 
through whose telescope we read the wonders of the uni- 
verse ; the laboratory of the chemist, in whose crucible we 
see dissolved the mysteries of created matter ; the magic 
of the telegraph, by whose voice we converse with those 
on the other side of the globe ; the fecundity of the press, 
by whose agency thought and knowledge become omni- 
present, each stands as a monument proclaiming the mar- 
vels accomplished by man's wisdom. This, then, is not a 
mean endowment. No disparaging word may be spoken 
of it ; but, on the contrary, it is to be honoured, exalted ! 

2. Power. " Let not the mighty." The idea is, the influ- 
ence which an individual may acquire and exert upon the 
rest of the world. We realize the thought best in looking 
upon it embodied. Set before the mind such an one as 



Glorying in Religion. 



293 



Julius Caesar, Alexander, Bonaparte, each in his own time 
the conqueror of the world. There he stands in his un- 
approachable preeminence. He lifts no hand, speaks no 
word, yet the world trembles at the mention of his name, 
and if he step, his leaden footfall thrills the nations with 
horror, for it is the moving of a power greater than nations ! 
Here is physical power. 

But there is the power of an idea, a thought or truth, 
embodied and walking abroad in the earth. Such was 
Newton's power, and such, but in a still higher form, was 
Martin Luther's. The world was moved by the theory of 
gravitation, and trembled under Luther's preaching of the 
doctrine of Justification by Faith, as much as ever it did 
before conqueror's sword ! 

Look upon the throne of the Brunswicks, standing 
amid the shock of nations, the falling of thrones, and the 
convulsion of the world, as a monument of physical, mar- 
tial, political power ! 

Look upon the Protestant Christian pulpit, founded 
mainly by Martin Luther, as the human instrumentality, 
which stands even more securely than the throne of the 
Brunswicks, and carries its influence where the tread of a 
soldier cannot come, and the influence of an army can 
never reach, which sways a world the sword cannot sub- 
due — the great world of mind, of heart, feeling and affec- 
tion — see in this a monument of intellectual, spiritual 
power ! 

Neither, then, is power a mean thing, to be spoken of 
lightly, or in terms of disparagement. It is altogether 
grand, worthy of our admiration and honour ! 

3. Riches. Of these nothing need be said. The word 
brings before our minds vast estates, treasures of gold and 



294 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

silver, splendid equipage. The possession of riches does 
not necessarily clothe the possessor with baseness any- 
more than the possession of power or wisdom does. The 
verdict of the wisest and best men is that riches are desir- 
able, and not by any means to be despised when honestly 
gained and wisely employed. They are a good pos- 
session. 

Now these are the things which the Bible compares 
with true religion, and over which it is exalted. If drunk- 
enness, fraud, tyranny, or any of the things which are felt 
to be injurious to the human race had been taken, and 
religion had been said to be better than these, every one 
must have assented. But it does more for religion than 
that. It takes the noblest and best things, those which, of 
all this world offers, men with justice value most highly ; 
and it claims for religion a higher acknowledgement from 
men, than for these. 

4. Religion. The word does not occur in the text, 
but what it means does. The true knowledge of God 
in its proper application is religion, and this is brought 
before us in the text. 

The knowledge of God spoken of in the text is peculiar. 
There is something more in it than we ordinarily associ- 
ate with the idea of knowing — " That He understandeth 
and knoweth me." It is not an accident that both these 
words are used, but that a view of the subject may be pre- 
sented which would otherwise escape our attention. What 
is read or studied in books is known. But above that 
power of the mind which receives knowledge through the 
medium of words, there is a subtle power of the under- 
standing by which we know things without knowing how 
we know them. We have an impression so strong we 



Glorying in Religion. 



295 



act upon it without having been conscious of receiving it 
through any form of words. By this power of intuition we 
read characters, penetrate a false garb that was worn to 
deceive us, or strangely understand a man's designs and 
govern ourselves accordingly without his having spoken a 
word. 

Now what this power does for men in the affairs of the 
world, faith does for him in understanding the character 
of God. So that to " understand and know " God means 
something more than to learn what we can of Him from 
books. Much may be known of God by the study of works 
in theology, by listening to sermons and lectures, by close 
application to the Bible. Thus may we know of His exis- 
tence in Trinity, of His omnipotence, omnipresence and all 
His attributes ; but all this knowledge has been derived 
through certain forms of words. It is known just as a 
schoolboy knows his grammar, or mathematics or natural 
science. There is no understanding of God by the intui- 
tion of faith, by a mysterious experience of His presence 
in the heart. As a consequence, all that knowledge does 
not make any person good ; it has no more effect upon a 
person than the same amount of knowledge in some other 
department. To " understand and know" God requires 
something more. The eye that reads must have the light 
of faith, then is the impression not made in forms of words 
upon the tablets of memory, but in deep experience upon 
the heart. St. Augustine once met a heathen Gentile, 
who, pointing to his idols — various objects carved and 
shapen in wood or stone — said : " These are my gods, 
where are yours ? ,; He then pointed to the sun and said 
the same, then to certain beasts which were commonly 
worshipped among the Gentiles, and said the same. Said 



296 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

St. Augustine, " I did not point him to my God, not 
because I had none, but because he had no eye to see 
Him." The eye that sees must have the light of faith, 
without which God cannot be " understood and known/' 

Then this understanding of God has some limitation, 
that is, it must recognise Him in a particular character. 
He must be understood as exercising " loving-kindness, 
judgment and righteousness in the earth." Loving-kind- 
ness presents the gracious side of His character. Love is 
a very precious word, it is full of tenderness. And the 
word kindness is very suggestive of sympathy. Yet neither 
fully expresses the warmth of feeling with which man is re- 
garded by His Divine Creator, we therefore have the two 
united to bring to our minds a full sense of the yearning 
love and compassion with which we are regarded by God. 
Judgment. This word turns our thoughts to the terrible 
side of the Divine character. He will not foiget insults 
offered to Him. Offenders will not go unpunished. 
Herod after slaying one apostle and imprisoning another, 
made a great speech. His flatterers said it was the voice 
of a god. Then he vaunted himself up. He thought 
soon to be worshipped as god. But heaven spake against 
his impious blasphemy, and he was eaten of worms, and 
gave up the ghost. God does execute judgment, and in 
the end He will judge the whole earth before Him. 
Righteousness. All His dealings with man are right. 
Whether on the side of loving-kindness or judgment, He 
never swerves in the slightest degree from the strictest line 
of right, and in the end every one will receive what is 
justly and righteously his due. In this character He de- 
lights to manifest Himself among men in the earth. 

Those whose hearts have no experience of God, who do 



Glorying in Religion. 



297 



not have the benefit of faith to aid their understanding of 
Him, fail here. In endeavouring to temper Divine justice 
with mercy, to blend love and judgment in the same 
character, they perpetrate constant mistakes, though they 
have all the knowledge of God that books can convey. 
Said a person, who had for! years been perplexing himself 
with the character of God, as with a problem in mathe- 
matics, addressing me, "your God is a blood-thirsty 
tyrant, a monster of evil." When asked his reason for 
such high blasphemy, I found he had been reading in the 
Old Testament, and had dwelt upon the accounts, in the 
book of Joshua, of the terrible slaughter of the Canaanites 
by the Israelites, in obedience to the command of the 
Lord. " Why," said he, " if a man should show himself 
possessed of so insatiable a thirst for blood, he would be 
driven from society as a monster unfit to live. Yet such 
is your God." Though it may not in many cases develop 
into such rank blasphemy, yet errors like this are by no 
means uncommon. Without faith men cannot receive 
the thought that God's purposes are of infinitely greater 
value than human life, and so they only know Him as a 
God of vengeance, but do not understand Him as exercis- 
ing loving-kindness. But religious faith, bringing to the 
heart a lively experience of the more gracious side of the 
Divine character, can, even in the darkest dispensations 
of His providence, understand Him as exercising "loving- 
kindness " as well as " judgment." 

When a boy, a few times I heard men in my father's em- 
ployment complain that he was a hard master. But I 
knew better than that. I knew he was an energetic man, 
urging his business by his own hands, paying his men 
well, and using them well ; but was not willing when there 



298 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



was work to be done, and they were paid for doing it, 
that they should lie in the shade. These men knew this 
much as well as I ; but I knew more, I understood in my 
experience of my father's character what my young heart 
assured me would give their words the lie. I had seen 
that father's eye flashing with joy in viewing the simple 
pleasures of his children. I had seen his countenance 
written over with anxiety when studying their welfare, and 
had heard from his lips words of the deepest tenderness, 
and I knew that he was anything but hard, but only kind 
and good. As I may know my earthly father better than 
another does, because of my nearer, more intimate inter- 
course with him, because I am his child, so may I know 
my Heavenly Father, upon whom my faith has taken hold, 
of whom my heart has had an experience, better than one 
who has not had the same spiritual communion with Him. 
Such a one sees the judgment, and says that He is hard. 
But we who understand His character, by faith, know 
better than that. He has looked upon Him in the raging 
storm, but not in the silent power of His glorious sun- 
shine \ he has seen Him in the dark form of the raging 
hurricane, sweeping in its path of desolation over the 
earth \ bat not in the calm, placid beauty of the sunlit 
waters. There have been rugged forms and towering 
peaks of the awful mountain in his view ; but not grassy 
glens and luxuriant flower gardens. He has seen the 
sword of wrath shedding the blood of impious foes ; but 
not His hand of mercy soothing the pains of the suffering, 
relieving the sick and the dying in their hours of agony. 
He has heard the voice of terror proclaiming " Vengeance 
is Mine ; " but not the voice of tenderness speaking to the 
humble and the contrite heart, 4 4 Be of good cheer, thy 



Glorying in Religion. 



299 



sins are forgiven thee." He has heard the awful impre- 
cation upon the wicked, " Depart from me ye cursed ; " 
but not that tender assurance spoken to the forsaken one, 
sad and weeping, as earthly ties are broken, " I will never 
leave thee nor forsake thee." But looking at God thus His 
character is only partially known. He is not understood, 
because He is judged from a partial manifestation. Just 
as a man's plans were ripe, and he thought his fortune 
sure, the blight came, and instead of fortune he had disap- 
pointment. In that hour of darkness his fists were 
clenched, his wrath was hot, and he declared that heaven 
was cruel thus to thwart his purposes. He was put into 
the furnace of affliction, his friends died, his health was 
impaired, and he said, " wrath, not love, counsels in 
heaven over the affairs of men." He had no faith and no 
heart experience whereby he might understand God. 
But one who had this experience of faith passed under 
the same cloud, drank the same bitter cup of reverse and 
disappointment, felt the same affliction, wept at the grave- 
side of the last of his family, experienced the estrangement 
of his last friend, and was himself bowed in sickness to 
the borders of death, but in all understood the Lord as 
delighting in loving-kindness, judgment, and righteous- 
ness, and therefore dutifully praised His hand in sweetest 
strain of song while passing under its heaviest strokes ! 

Now this understanding and knowledge of God, includ- 
ing an experience of His in-dwelling in the heart by faith, 
constitutes true religion. And it is this which the text 
places in a position of pre-eminence over these three grand 
things, wisdom, power and riches. This, man may glory 
in. 

II. Let us now illustrate the idea of glorying, 



300 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



AND SEE HOW RELIGION ALONE IS WORTHY OF THAT 
DISTINCTION. 

What is glorying ? There are some words the meaning 
of which are best understood by looking upon the act which 
they describe. This is one. Look at some one who is 
glorying. Let us go to the school room. There is a 
boy who for weeks has been striving for a certain victory. 
To gain the head of his class has been his consuming am- 
bition. At last he has reached that towering eminence. 
There he stands. His eye flashes with brighter lustre 
than ever before. His little parted lips can command no 
words to express the exultation of that transcendant mo- 
ment ! Is he ashamed of what he has done ? Would he 
object to his parents being told of the achievement ? No ; 
you may go into the street and tell every person you 
meet, you may put it into the newspapers, you may climb 
to the highest eminence, and from its height proclaim in 
the hearing of all the world the achievements of this little 
conqueror, and you will only add fuel to the consuming 
joy of his young heart. He has done a fine thing, and 
would be proud to have all the world know it. He 
glories in it. Take that same set of feelings, transfer 
them to the bosom of manhood, and it is human glorying. 
It is Napoleon, referring his patent of nobility to the 
battle of Montenotte, where he gained his first victory 
over the Austrians ; it is Franklin, who has just snatched 
lightning from the cloud ; it is Cyrus W. Field, after the 
first message has sped through the waters of the Atlantic, 
and America has heard the gentle whisper; aye, it is 
Stephen, in martyr's blood, knocking at the gates and 
asking a martyr's crown ! Is he ashamed of what he has 
done ? No. Tell it from the hill tops, let the mountains 



Glorying in Religion. 



declare it to the clouds, let the nations know it, and let 
coming generations hear, for he glories in the work he has 
accomplished ! 

Now is wisdom worthy of exciting such feelings of 
exultation in the heart of man ? " Let not the wise man 
glory in his wisdom." Sometimes those who are esteemed, 
learned and wise do exalt themselves thus, but they show 
thereby that they have yet to gain the element of true 
wisdom. Ask Solomon " shall man glory in wisdom?" 
He knew its worth. He said, " I called upon God, and 
the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her before 
sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in com- 
parison of her. Neither compared I unto her any precious 
stone, because all gold in respect of her is as sand, and 
silver shall be counted as clay to her. I loved her above 
health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light." 
He had paid high tribute to wisdom, yet so far from glory- 
ing in it he exclaimed, " vanity of vanities, saith the 
preacher all is vanity." 

Is might or power worthy of exciting such exultation 
of feeling ? " Let not the mighty man glory in his might." 
Ask Bonaparte. One would suppose he knew. We seem 
to hear a negative answer in his oft expressed lament, 
even at St. Helena, concerning the check he received at 
Acre from Sir Sydney Smith : " That man made me miss 
my destiny." Ask Alexander. He responds : " I swept 
over the east with my victorious army, the nations bowed, 
and kings came forth uncrowned as I passed. I knocked 
at the gates of Babylon— they opened and I entered ; but 
just as I rose to that lofty eminence of power, and stood 
the proud conqueror of the world, the poison of death 
flashed through my veins, my might was less than a babe's, 
and I crumbled into dust," 



3o2 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

Nor shall riches awaken such exalted feelings : 
" Let not the rich man glory in his riches." The 
spectacle of a man glorying in riches is not uncom- 
mon, when perhaps the only able thing he ever did was 
to amass a fortune, and that perhaps in such a way that 
the world was no better for his having made it. Or may 
be he inherited it, without one stroke of his own useless 
hand. It does not secure to him one of the qualities of 
the true man, yet he expects more regard than others 
because he is rich ! Sometimes his calf will cast him off. 
The books tell of such a one, when dying, that he asked 
an attendant to bring him a bag of gold. He took it and 
laid it upon his heart. But after a few moments he re- 
moved it, saying simply : " It won't do," and repeating it, 
" It won't do." No, certainly riches will not do in such 
an hour ! 

But true religion man may justly glory in. He who has 
it may feel that he has something of which he may 
desire the whole world to know. He may with good 
reason demand that men honour him more, on account 
of his possession. If he appeal to it when dying, like the 
man to his gold, it will do. If he seek to it for happiness 
during life, it will enrobe the most barren surroundings 
in garments of beauty ! 

In consideration of these thoughts we ask why should 
it be so hard to induce men to take upon them a profes- 
sion of Christ's religion ? There are so many things for 
which men ought to blush, yet they do not, while this, the 
only thing in which they ought to glory is about the only 
thing for which they blush ! We ask young people, why 
should they blush for the profession of Jesus ? A time will 
come when it will be the only thing any one will care to 



Glorying in Religion. 



possess, when those who have had riches, power and wis- 
dom will stand in the same vast company with Christ's con- 
fessors, the whole human family, and all the angels will wit- 
ness the scene. In that solemn judgment, unless it transpire 
incidentally it will not be known of any that they were wise, 
or powerful, or rich, but the whole assembly will hear of 
him who understood and knew God. A Rothschild will 
be unmentioned for his riches, or a Bonaparte that he was 
a man of power, but the poorest child of the meanest 
beggar will be proclaimed before all the multitude, if he 
had made the personal acquaintance of Jesus. Why hesi- 
tate now to proclaim our religious tendencies; then it will 
be the only thing we will be glad to have the world know 
of us,, and he who has Christ then, how will he exult to 
have the universe know of the fact ! Do any desire a 
star for ambition ? Set the knowledge of God in Jesus 
Christ before you, enshrine His love in your heart, and let 
your glorying not be in things that perish, but in Him 
who endures and sits enthroned forever ! 



THE GOSPEL VIEW OF TRIBULATION, 



SERMON XVIII. 

By REV. C. S. EBY, B.A., Hamilton (German 
Missionary). 

" By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we 
stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but 
we glory in tribulations also : knowing that tribulation worketh pati- 
ence ; and patience, experience ; and experience, hope : And hope 
maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." — Romans v. 2-5. 

STRANGER coming from an open plain, 
where mountains are unknown, into some 
narrow Alpine valley, overhung with dark, 
dense fog, is oppressed with its quiet and 
grave-like stillness. He would hardly believe 
you if you told him that a few hundred feet 
up the side of those hills there was a spot where the sun 
still shines, where the breezes are free, and the eye sweeps 
unhindered o'er hill and dale. But the fog clears away 
and he sees that it is a real fact, for there the mountain wall 
rises majestic at his side, towering aloft far beyond the 




The Gospel View of Tribulation, 305 

range of distinguishing sight. He takes a field-glass, and 
objects before unseen are revealed to him. He sees a 
wayside inn, the cabin of a peasant, or perhaps a moun- 
tain hamlet with its stunted steeple. He sees moving 
forms and knows that life is there. But only when he 
leaves the vale and commences the ascent himself, does he 
begin to comprehend the real sublimity and wealth of that 
lofty stand. Every step which he takes upwards widens his 
view ; the air grows freer and seemingly purer, his blood 
circulates with more vigorous flow, and gives him a fore- 
taste of joys to come. At last he reaches the spot on the 
mountain pass of which he had been told. At his feet 
lies the valley, wrapped again it may be, in the densest fog 
or evening shade. Around him nature's giants stand 
majestic, and his eye sweeps a mighty range, where peaks 
on peaks, rising in sublime irregularity, reflect from their 
snowy crests the departing sunlight of a brilliant heaven. 

Here we have an illustration of human experience in 
religious things. There are points in the pathway of the 
Christian which are far beyond the range of the earth's 
sordid eye. Do we remain in the vale as mere worldlings 
without high and holy aspirations after the Divine image, 
then we are enveloped in a fog which shuts out from our 
view the most glorious privileges of a blood-bought race. 
If one should tell us of the comforts, and riches, and hap- 
piness of religion, it seems to us a something unreal and 
fantastic, something built on clouds, a mere castle in the 
air. But when that fog is removed so that we can see a 
little beyond ourselves, we are compelled to acknowledge 
the superior power and dignity of the true man of God. If 
our minds are but partially enlightened by the Spirit of God 
so that we begin to see into the mysteries of spiritual life, 

T 



306 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

our minds seem to open to a new world, our blindness is 
gradually removed, we see men as trees walking. But 'tis 
only when we begin the ascent for ourselves, when we 
leave the vale, loosen the bonds which mammon has 
coiled around us, and break the strong fetters welded and 
fastened upon us by the prince of sin, that we begin to feel 
the blessedness of the reality of a higher spiritual life. 
The earth is none the less ours, bat more ours than ever 
it was, for we see its real beauties more than ever. The 
more we rise above the earth and the earthly, the wider 
our views become, more full of patience and charity which 
contemplates the earth in the light of heaven. As we rise 
in our upward course a new life seems to inspire our being, 
a mightier faith lays hold on things divine and all our 
aspirations centre in God. 

To one of these landmarks in the Christian's pilgrimage 
I ask you to accompany me on this occasion. Let us 
leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and, in our 
pressing forward after perfection, stop a moment to con- 
sider a branch of Christian experience, which, wherever it 
exists, evinces a wondrous power of faith, a full fruition of 
of love, showing that the soul is far on the way towards 
perfection's lofty height, namely — Glorying in tribulation. 

One of the first things required of a Christian by the 
Gospel, and one which seems to be the most difficult to 
acquire, is perfect submission to the will of God, and im- 
plicit confidence in His power, and wisdom, and love, when 
our pathway is so dark that our own eyes cannot see and 
comprehend all the w r ay through which we are being led. 
Wherever this confidence exists in its fulness it is ever 
followed by joy, let our outward circumstances be what 
they may, and this joy excites the wonder, if not the 
admiration, of the unbeliever. 



The Gospel Viezu of Tribulation. 307 

The Apostle James exclaims in the very commence- 
ment of his general Epistle, an epistle written in a time 
of conflict and storm for the Church of God, " My breth- 
ren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations/' 
To one unacquainted with the spring of the Christian's hope 
such an exhortation must appear an inexplicable riddle. 
What can be the source of this joy ? what its support ? As 
it is only found in the experience of true Christians we find 
here the explanation. 'Tis not a mere fancy of the apostle ; 
it flows from the teaching of Christ Himself, a gem from 
the treasury of God, a fruit of the Gospel of Peace. 

'Tis an easy matter to be joyous and glad when life's 
pathway leads us through sunny fields, by the still waters, 
amid fragrant flowers, where we are charmed with music's 
harmony — strangers to the jarring discords of earth's hot 
struggle. Easy it is to be happy when our house seems 
strong, and the whole world favourable. But has the 
grace of God wrought such a transformation in our hearts 
that we can, in the midst of tribulation and pain, rejoice 
in the prospect of that time when " they who sow in tears 
shall reap in joy?" For earth's joys are fleeting and 
insecure. Some fell simoom sweeps over our pleasant 
fields, withering the fragrant flowers and blasting the blos- 
soms of our hope. Some deadly sirocco breathes pesti- 
lence into our midst, and burns up our life's-blood in its 
fountain. Some unseen hand touches our fancied palace 
and its beautiful frescoes become unsightly blotches, our 
hopes vanish into air, and the walls of our fancied strength 
fall crumbling to the earth. 

Can a mortal's spirit rise above such ruin and desola- 
tion and still lay claim to a right to be glad ? Yes, indeed; 
for the eye of Christian faith looks beyond, his faith grasps 



308 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the promise of another home, and his hope is the earnest 
of a better life. The veil of the inner sanctuary is lifted 
and he catches a glimpse of the crown of life which the 
Lord has promised to those that love Him. Deep down 
in the soul of the child of God there dwells a lasting peace 
which the storms of earth cannot reach. 

But, can we bless the hand which afflicts ? Can we 
" glory in tribulations" themselves, and praise God for 
life's afflictions as the Gospel requires ? Ah ! that is the 
difficult task. The hand seems cruel which afflicts. The 
medicine has still a bitter, bitter taste though we know it 
to be our only cure. Here we must take refuge in Jesus. 
When conscious of our own weakness we can look to Him 
who has left us a perfect example, that we should follow 
in His steps. He has trodden the same rough pathway. 
" He was afflicted in all points like as we are," but His 
sorrows far, far exceeded ours. He was made perfect 
through suffering, and is able to succour them which are 
tempted. We know that we have in Him a sympathizing 
High Priest who will be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, who in the days of His suffering cried to the 
Father that the cup might pass from Him if it were possi- 
ble. He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we 
are dust, and never can He break the bruised reed or 
quench the smoking flax. He will never despise the weary 
pilgrim tottering under a weight which seems too heavy 
for him to bear. 

Man was not created for sorrow and woe. Life's crosses 
were unknown until sin cursed our nature. Life's thorns 
never grew in the bowers of Eden for the holy. They are 
to be found only here in this vale of tears for sinful fallen 
humanity. No wonder then that we long for deliverance 



The Gospel View of Tribulation. 309 

from the cross, no wonder that we weep under the strokes 
of the rod. To long for freedom is natural. We cannot 
but weep over life's ills. But as long as Eternal Wisdom 
sends them, or permits them, so long must we regard them 
as tokens of Eternal Love. But that requires a strength 
and ripeness of faith, the attainment of which should be 
one of the great aims of life. 

I. Wherein consists the blessings arising from 

TRIBULATIONS ? 

i. A Test. They serve as a test of the strength and 
genuineness of our faith. Only some such test as gives 
us a reliable view of the inner strength of our soul's cita- 
del. The knowledge of the truth is our only safety, and 
happy should we be if some light affliction of time reveal 
to us the barrenness and deadness of our sinful hearts, 
and thus arouse our energies to seek the life divine. 

In our Lord's parable of the two houses, it was only 
when the storms came, and the wind blew, and the rain 
fell and beat upon the houses, that the baseless fabric of 
one of them was swept away with its treacherous founda- 
tion, while the other defied the storm and stood strong 
through the rock on which it was built. Just so, when 
life's storms arise, the winds of temptation blow, and the 
rains of sorrow fall, we find whether our faith has built on 
the shifting treacherous sand of time, or upon the immov- 
able Rock of Ages. 

Two ships ride at anchor. They seem to be equally 
safe while all is calm. But a hurricane sweeps over the 
sea. One of them endures the strain and proudly holds 
her own amid the raging of the elements, while the other 
on account of a flaw in a single link is swept from its 
moorings and dashed to a hopeless wreck. Affliction will 



310 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

thus test our moorings, and show us whether our hope's 
anchor is cast " within the veil/' and is held by a perfect 
faith, or whether all is a vain delusion of earth. 

Before the Franco-Prussian war commenced no nation 
presented a bolder front, or made a more pretentious dis- 
play of power than France. Judging from outward appear- 
ances and repeated boasts she might have been looked 
upon by the world as of all the nations the most powerful. 
But the day of trial came, a day well calculated to test 
her strength, and instead of bringing her a triumph it tore 
away her flimsy mask and exposed her real weakness to 
the astonished world. France's greatest enemy was not 
Germany, her darkest day was not when she lay crushed 
at the feet of the conqueror, for that may prove to be the 
dawn of the brightest and best day of her national history. 
Her greatest enemy was an inward effeminacy, and profli- 
gacy, and immorality, nurtured by years of forgetfulness of 
God. That was her darkest, saddest day when she rejected 
the God of Providence, and bowed at the shrine of sensu- 
ality and self. So it is in the case of individuals. We 
may put in a plausible appearance, and let the world 
imagine that we are soldiers of the cross, and clad in the 
panoply of heaven. But some jeering word is spoken and 
our coward hearts begin to shrink. If persecution arises 
our faith is robbed of its power, and our glory is trodden 
in the dust. But if we are planted on the Rock of Ages, 
and the inner principle of the divine life and power gives 
reality to the outward form of godliness, then, indeed, we 
can defy the world's scoff, and all the powers of sin. 

Tribulations do not always mean great afflictions which 
harrow a man's inmost soul, or some great effort of the 
adversary to carry us away as with a flood. They are also 



The Gospel View of Tribulation. 311 

those little conflicts or struggles of life which test a man's 
real principle and show of what stuff he is made. The dam 
of a mill-pond may hold up its immense weight of water, 
swollen by the torrents of spring. But one or two drops 
find their way through some little hidden crevice, these 
are followed by others and more, until the little opening 
becoming wider and wider, admits a stream which in time 
ruins the whole fabric. We must watch the little leaks, 
and guard against the little foxes too. Our real strength 
is tested more by life's little things than by our greater 
trials. And happy the man or woman who can carry a 
heart cheerful and strong, a spirit unsullied and hopeful, 
a temper unsoured and Christ-like amid life's trifling cares, 
connected with our every day experience, and of such a 
character that they should never go beyond the thresholds 
of home. 

Trials expose the weakness of the weak. But as the 
thunder storm spans the blue vault with glory's arch or 
the shades of night bring to our view the beauties of the 
star-set heavens and the quivering Aurora, so the storms 
of life cast a glory over the Christian's experience, and 
our dark hours reveal hidden virtues and powers of that 
soul whose conversation is in heaven. 

II. AS A PROMOTER OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

Tribulations do not merely test the soul's strength and 
the reality of our faith, they have also an important object 
to gain, they bring forth a blessed fruit in those who are 
rightly exercised thereby. We find in many Christians a 
marked ripeness of faith and character, and we find in al- 
most every instance that this is the result of sanctified afflic- 
tion without which they probably never would have attained 
that degree of development in Christian manhood. In 



312 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the spring time the farmer passes a heavy roller over the 
fields in which the tender blades of the grain crop have 
just shot forth into life. He seems to crush that life and 
tread into the dust his hopes of the coming harvest ; but 
out of the soil now rendered more firm the plant rises 
stronger than ever and bears a better fruit than it other- 
wise would have done. So the great Husbandman of 
Souls seems to crush the tender heart, but it is only that 
it may rise stronger and purer than ever. 

When passing through sorrow it is hard to see so far, 
we can't understand the way by which we are being led, 
our eyes are so blinded by tears that we can see nothing 
beyond. We may allow the general principle, but when we 
are called upon to apply it to our own experience we are 
often more than perplexed, and ask, with Tennyson : 

" And who shall so forecast the years, 
And find in loss a gain to match ; 
Or reach a hand through time to catch 
The far off interest of tears ? " 

'Tis faith which draws from affliction its wealth of bless- 
ing. If we have but real faith in Him who doeth all 
things well, our life's crosses become wings to waft our 
souls aloft, " For our light affliction, which is but for a 
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." (2 Cor. iv. 17.) But if our faith is want- 
ing, they become a terrible weight, which sinks us to the 
earth. 

" Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experi- 
ence; and experience, hope." Upon what sort of an experi- 
ence is this hope built ? 'Tis this, the Shepherd of our 
souls has never led us through a dark valley or over a 



The Gospel View of Tribulation. 313 

desert wild, without revealing to us a treasure there, and 
then guiding us out into an open field, where He leads us 
beside the still waters, and perfectly restores our souls. 
We find that the hand which .afflicts pours oil into the 
wounded heart, and heals the contrite spirit. Such ex- 
perience gives us hope for the future. 

" Before I was afflicted I went astray :" says the 
Psalmist, " but now have I kept Thy word." (Ps. cxix. 67.) 
The prodigal son began to think of father and home only 
when the hand of affliction was laid on him. Manasseh 
began to reflect on his wickedness, and to turn to the God 
of his fathers, only when every earthly hope had fled. If 
prosperity causes us to forget or scorn the riches of grace, 
then it is that we are really poor, but if the days of afflic- 
tion have only driven us to the Saviour, these are the 
happiest and best days of our lives. We mourn sometimes 
a sudden loss, we are surprised by some unforeseen ill. 
We can't imagine the reason of such a visitation, we see 
no object to be gained thereby. But let us not forget 
that an All-seeing Eye was watching over our lot and shap- 
ing our destiny. Our Father saw perhaps some snare 
which the enemy had laid for our feet, and in His mercy 
took the means of guiding us into safety. Now we mourn 
and talk of afflictions which fill our hearts with anguish, 
and our mouths with lamentation, but when we are beyond 
the flood, aud know even as we are known, we shall see 
them all as blessings in disguise and subjects of praise. 

We find in all God's dealings with man a revelation of 
infinite goodness which strives to rescue the soul, as well 
as of infinite wisdom which seeks to hinder sin. The ob- 
ject of the chastisements is clearly given in the word of 
God ; — "Lo, all these things worketh God oft times with 



314 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

man to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened 
with the light of the living." " In the day of adversity 
consider" says the preacher. His goodness should lead 
us to repentance, and His rod should teach us wisdom. 
" Behold, happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth," 
therefore, " despise not thou the chastening of the 
Almighty, for He maketh sore and bindeth up, He wound- 
eth and His hand maketh whole. He shall deliver thee 
out of six troubles, yea, in seven there shall no evil touch 
thee." 

" Experience worketh hope, and hope maketh not 
ashamed." No, because it is a well-grounded hope. Just 
as the sturdy oak becomes more firmly rooted in the soil, 
because of the wind and the storm, so our hope becomes 
firmer and stronger, because struggle and triumph in our 
experience strengthen the roots of our faith. Blessed in- 
deed is the fruit of tribulation. " Hope making not 
ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts." The love of God ! When we can regard the 
matter in the light of God's love, oh ! what a blessed peace 
it brings into the soul. The peace of God! A peace 
wonderful in its influence, " which passeth all understand- 
ing. " A peace which enters the heart when crushed and 
panting after life, which penetrates more profoundly into 
the heart's depths than any influence of earth. A peace 
which comes to solace weary restless spirits, which have 
found earth's delights to be mere illusions. Ah, how * 
many there are who have held the door of their hearts fast 
closed against the Saviour who stood without knocking 
for admittance, until affliction made them bow the head 
of pride, and caused them to welcome the messenger of 
peace. But when the peace of God enters the heart, it 



The Gospel View of Tribulation. 315 

heals our wounds and more than compensates for all of 
life's woes. 

III. Strength of the weak. We sing : 

" Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Let me to Thy bosom fly. " 

And also : 

" Other refuge have I none, 

Hangs my helpless soul on Thee." 

And so it is. In this world of sadness we have but one 
city of refuge, only one way of escape, and that is through 
Him who is " the way, the truth, and the life." " God is 
our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." 
" But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 
above that ye are able to bear, but will with the temptation 
make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." 
When earth's joys grow dim, and transient pleasures fade 
away; when love bears sorrow and sadness, and dear ones 
are snatched from our sight ; when our bodies are stricken 
with disease, and we are made to feel our mortality, our 
comfort is to be found only in the possession of a hope 
of life eternal. When our souls are tired of sin, disgusted 
with its treachery, and we turn from it with loathing in the 
soul, we find then there is a balm in Gilead and a physi- 
cian there, who offers to every seeking soul life, and health, 
and peace. 

The true peace of God is the result of the pardon of 
sin. " Being justified by faith we have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." When once we have 
heard the sweet voice of the Saviour speak to our own 
weary hearts that one word " peace," we can never forget 



316 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



its power. Oh ! what newness of life, what holy commu- 
nion with the heavenly, what hope of better joys ! * The 
peace of God in Jesus Christ ! To have the assurance 
in our hearts that God is reconciled with us in Jesus, to 
feel that we have in Him a better rest, to know that a 
nobler inheritance is reserved for us — that is more than 
all the possible joys of earth. What would this earth be 
without this confidence and hope, which stretches beyond 
the tomb ? The world would be dark and gloomy, death 
a horrid phantom, the grave an insatiable abyss. But lo! 
Jesus gives His peace, not as the world gives, but a con- 
solation, a hope, an assurance, which neither tribulation 
nor death itself can shake. 

Let us then carry our burdens to Jesus. We bring to 
Him the load of sorrow that weighs us down, the weight 
of woe which almost crushes our hearts. He takes our 
burden and replaces it with His peace. He robs affliction 
ot its sting, and changes sorrow into blessing. We find 
strength and consolation in the knowledge of His sym- 
pathy, and in the assurance of His power to save. We 
can never carry our life's burdens alone ; we must have 
help and counsel We may try the world with its light- 
heartedness and folly — but sooner or later the world will 
prove insufficient and unsatisfactory. We find there no 
real sympathy or strength. The world is too light and 
trifling for the sad heart, and ridicules our tears. The 
world is a desert waste to the peace-seeking soul. Christ 
is our only refuge, our only perfect friend. We rejoice, 
'tis true, in the sympathy of other friends, but they are 
all like ourselves, fallible and mortal. But the Saviour's 
strength manifests its power in our weakness ; it is made 
perfect in our feebleness, hence " Cast all your cares upon 



The Gospel View of Tribulation. 317 

Him for He careth for you." There was an old pilgrim 
to the better country who was as well known for his life of 
trial as for his uniform cheerfulness and trust in God. 
When asked the cause of this cheerfulness and content, 
while his lot in life was so hard, " Oh," said he, " couple 
heaven with it and you can understand me." There we 
find one of the hidden springs of the Christian's joy, and 
the things that are seen by faith are eternal. 

The mountain hunter in his chase after the bounding 
chamois, is led far from his cottage home. A storm sud- 
denly overtakes him, and his homeward journey is fraught 
with danger and toil. Through the blinding snow he 
wearily threads his way ; benumbed with the cold, his heart 
faints within him. Suddenly his thoughts bound through 
the intervening space, and give new hope and courage to his 
heart, by presenting to his mind his fireside and the loved 
ones there who wait for his return. He sees their forms 
from afar, he hears their voices above the storm ; the ab- 
sent and distant ones are present with his spirit, and give 
him an astonishing strength of perseverance. So with the 
pilgrim to Zion. Weary from life's burdens, harrassed by 
its cares, downcast from life's sad history, crushed by sor- 
row unknown to the world, he becomes inspired with new 
courage and comfort and hope, when the eye of faith pre- 
sents to his mind " the King in His beauty, and the land 
which is afar off." Glorious things are spoken of this 
land, this city of the Great King. " And there shall be 
no more curse." "And there shall be no night there, and 
they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord 
God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever. " 
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, 



318 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

neither shall there be any more pain, the former things 
are passed away." " What are these arrayed in white 
robes, and whence came they ? " asked the angel of the 
wondering John, and answers himself, " These are they 
who have come out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." 

" There is a home for weary souls, 

By sin and sorrow driven, 
When tossed on life's tempestuous shoals, 
Where storms arise and ocean rolls, 

And all is drear but heaven. 

i 6 There fragrant flowers immortal bloom, 
And joys supreme are given, 
There rays divine disperse the gloom ; 
Beyond the confines of the tomb 
Appears the dawn of heaven." 



THE POWER OP THE GOSPEL. 



SERMON XIX. 

By REV. GEORGE DOUGLAS, LL.D., Principal 
and Professor of Theology, Montreal. 

"For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also 
in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." — 
I. Thes. i. 5. 



HIS text is found in Paul's first letter to the 
Thessalonian Church. Ancient Thessalonica 
was the chief seaport of Macedonia, and it is 
noteworthy that the great Apostle loved large 
cities and great centres of commercial power. 
This place was remarkable alike for its opu- 
lence, for its great architectural splendours, and for its 
scholastic eminence. Opening with the memorable mis- 
sion to Phillippi, this Thessalonica was the second place 
on the European continent where the banner of the Gos- 
pel had been uplifted by Paul. Here his ministry was 
mightily commended by God, and was attended with a 
great intellectual quickening, and as we have it here in 
the lesson, with the salvation of multitudes. As the imme- 




320 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

diate and natural result of this, the synagogues became 
forsaken, and the classic temples deserted by the thou- 
sands who were wont to worship there. 

That Asiatic adventurer — one who came not with excel- 
lence of speech or with wisdom of words — one who was 
in bodily presence contemptible — that he should dislocate 
and disarrange the existing order of things in this proud 
and haughty city, caused the deepest indignation. The 
natural result followed. They assaulted the Apostle, they 
summarily expelled him from the city ; yet with a wealth 
of affection, which I think, and I suppose you think, the 
first attribute in the character of Paul, he clung to this 
church of his early love, and when philosophic adversaries 
undertook to shake the confidence of that church in his 
apostolic character as well as in the divinity of the Gospel 
itself — when, I say, they undertook to shake the confidence 
of the church in the Gospel and its exponent, he penned 
the first of all the epistles he ever wrote to this church. 
How appropriately he opens it, with this beautiful re- 
minder of the divinity of the Gospel " Our Gospel," he 
says, " came not unto you in word only " — not like the 
cold platonic speculation — not like the Homeric song — 
not like the brilliant oration that may thrill for the moment 
and then die upon the lips ; no, " our Gospel came not in 
word only, but in power," commanding the attention and 
the knowledge of the intellect. But it came also " in the 
Holy Ghost," and with much divine and experimental 
assurance. 

That power which belongs to the Gospel of God — who 
can tell it ? The mystery of power — who can reveal it ? 
All ages have sought, and all science at this hour is seek- 
ing to solve the problem of power. Power in its lowest 



The Power \of the Gospel. 



321 



conditions belongs to all things material. There is power 
in the storm of the elements which we have just witnessed. 
It is in the waves of the sea that, like the wilful child, sports 
with the vessel that floats on its bosom. It is in the 
lightning and the thunderbolt that, like maniacs, smite all 
around with destruction. It is found in connection with 
every material element which exists in the universe of 
God. But there is a higher, more ultimate form of power, 
if I may so speak ; it is that which belongs to that unseen, 
subtle, immaterial something which we denominate thought. 
What is it that gives energy to man, what is it that strikes 
his colossal intelligence, and enables him to see that this 
is " a thing of beauty and a joy forever ? " What is it that 
gave birth to those poetic strains that have thrilled the 
ages, and forged and framed those rallying cries of justice, 
liberty, and freedom, which have stormed and taken cap- 
tive myriads of human hearts in the history of the world ? 
What is it but that unseen, untenable something which we 
denominate thought. Now, if you cast back your minds, 
as you sit here this morning, to that time in the far past 
when every force in the universe existed but as a divine 
force in the divine mind \ and if we also turn to our text 
and ask, What is that power which belongs to the Gospel? 
I answer it is not purely mysterious \ it is grander than 
mystery \ it is the heart-compelling power that slumbers 
in the great seed-thoughts that belong to our great Gospel. 

Permit me to illustrate this point by quoting one or two 
of those seed-thoughts. What magnetic thrilling power, 
for instance, belongs to the divine thought of a God incar- 
nate and manifest in our flesh. If you speak to me of one 
high in rank, of a kingly potentate, or say, for illustration, 
our Sovereign Lady the Queen ; tell me of her long ances* 
v 



322 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



tral line from the Tudors and Plantagenets downward ; 
tell me of her diadem and her sceptre, of the great throne 
upon which she sits, and the dazzling splendour with 
which she is surrounded, and it may excite a passing inter- 
est and admiration — certainly nothing more. But tell me 
that beneath this royal splendour there throbs a warm but 
widowed heart, that wept long and refused to be com- 
forted ; a mother's heart, which yearns for the highest 
weal of her beloved children ; the gentle heart, full of 
sympathy, that gladly throws aside the tinsel of royalty to 
minister to the wants of the poor, and you have started a 
power that takes hold of my heart, and of every heart 
which hears the intelligence. 

Community of nature, sympathy in suffering and in sor- 
row, are potential, and imperial over the spirits of men. 
And now, what of the great historic conceptions of God— 
the God of the Hebrew prophets, of Job, and of Moses — 
what is he ? He is the personification of honour, majesty, 
and power. His power is such that they said of Him that 
He weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a 
balance, and that he taketh up the isles as a very little 
thing ; that He rides upon the wings of the wind, and 
maketh the whirlwind a chariot ; that the saints and the 
winged seraphim do homage to Him, while ten thousand 
times ten thousand angels minister unto Him. When I 
hear the intelligence of all this, I bow my head in humility 
and reverence, and something that is tinged with fear ; and 
yet how cold, and how distant — how weary am I with the 
untenable infinities that belong to these conceptions of 
God. 

Let us now turn to the doctrine of a God incarnate in 
our own flesh ; and in the Gospel which teaches that doc- 



The Power of the Gospel. 



3*3 



trine we have disclosures of Him as Immanuel, God with 
us, and in relations to humanity which the most venturous 
imagination never before dared to conceive. We see 
Him where and how? We see Him as a babe slumber 
ing in His mother's arms ; we see Him as a gladsome 
growing boy ; we see Him for thirty years amid the social 
barbarities and lowliness of Nazareth ; we see Him joyous 
at the marriage in Cana, and weeping with the weepers 
at Bethany ; we see Him, in His humanity, curing disease, 
succouring distress, and calming, with a voice of authority, 
the stormy bosom of the sea ; we see Him commanding 
the sepulchral dead to come back to life and intelligent 
consciousness, and then — oh mystery of God ! — we see 
Him bow His head in meekness and die. Yes, and more 
than this : when He was about to depart did He not say, 
"I will not leave you comfortless;" did He not, when 
sitting on the summit of Olivet, when he was about to bid 
defiance to all the forces that bound Him to this earth, 
leave us the comforting assurance " Lo, I am with you 
always "—I thank my God for that — " even unto the end 
of the world." 

I appeal to you to-day if these familiar truths do not 
come home to you as if they were under a new revelation; 
if this " old, old story " has not a vitality in it that makes 
it ever new ? I appeal to you if there is not a forceful- 
ness in this old text that holds and commands the homage 
of the intellect and of the heart ? If a man is strong, 
healthy, and self-reliant, if he has need of no help, of 
course there is less power in it ; but to the wasted, to the 
worn, to the bereaved, to those who have known the 
world and its emptiness, I ask if there is not a power in 
this without price, and unspeakable ? He is a father God 



3^4 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



and a mother God — for we will not let woman alone take 
charge of that element of tenderness. He is a brother 
God, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, whose heart 
has thrilled and throbbed with the same emotions as our 
own. Your brother, my brother ! We stand before the 
mystery and bow in homage before it. Great is the mys- 
tery of godliness, that form of infinite grace which came 
down, took hold of us, bound us by an everlasting bond 
of love to Himself, and lifted our humanity to godliness. 
Go, publish it abroad, proclaim this gospel of incarnation 
to the world, for it is potential as a force, and takes hold 
of the strongest elements of our nature. 

But again, we notice as a great, divine, and forceful 
seed-thought of the gospel, the atonement and self- 
sacrifice for the good of others. If you have ever studied 
the point you will notice that there is scarcely an intim- 
ation of this doctrine in the universe outside of the Gos- 
pel. I know it is customary for the psalmists and high 
priests of nature to speak of this as the best possible 
world, with many advantages and but few drawbacks. 
But, my brethren, the more profoundly you investigate the 
situation the more utterly are you perplexed. It would 
seem as if the very law of the universe was founded upon 
the principle of selfishness. Follow in the train of those 
great scientific authorities that have opened up the found- 
ations of nature, and what do they tell ? They tell us 
that the first creation was inorganic matter, and made it 
into the likeness of itself ; then came vegetable life that 
absorbed this inorganic matter; then came animal life 
which devoured the vegetable life and made it into the 
likeness of itself. Then came bestial life that preyed 



The Power of the Gospel. 325 

upon both vegetable and animal life, completing the 
round, as the poet has appropriately put it, 

" Of rapine and ruin that pervades the universal world." 

Lastly, came the era of intellect, of mind and man — 
his physical nature making use of the vegetable and 
animal life in order to live, and his mind at war with both 
God and nature. The more you search the history of 
this world as revealed outside of the Gospel, the more 
you see that there is little of kindness, little of benevo- 
lence. On the other hand, we find that condition of 
things only too prevalent which is described by the 
Psalmist : — " Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their 
tongues have they deceived ; the poison of asps is under 
their lips, their feet are swift to shed blood." Now it was 
into this world — this world seemingly built upon a prin- 
ciple of selfishness — that God flashed the new light, that 
He projected the new thought — that of atonement and 
self-sacrifice for the good of others, and it was into this 
arena that He sent His Son. He was the man of sorrow 
and acquainted with grief; it was He that suffered, not 
for His own faults but for the faults of others, and 
laid down the principle that a man should die for the peo- 
ple, while He consecrated and offered Himself up a sacri- 
fice for that purpose. 6 ' He gave His back to the smiter, 
and His cheeks to those who pluck off the hair." He 
that held up the universe fainted beneath the cross ) He 
that could command the presence and aid of legions of 
angels was cast off, and in darkness, alone, and with the 
wail of the forsaken upon His lips, He died for you and 
for me. Oh ! who can stand beneath the cross — I wonder 
that my heart does not melt more, and that yours do not 



326 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



melt more at the thought — who, I ask, can stand beneath 
the cross and gaze upon this sublime example of self- 
sacrifice without feeling that there is a power in that cross 
which is both infinite and indescribable. We are familiar 
with the force that swept out over this world at its creation, 
how in an instant this gravitating power held the particles 
of God's 'vast empire in bonds, and bound them down 
together with a universal grasp. But it only binds mat- 
ter ; it cannot bind mind. This, however, is the grandeur 
of the power of the cross : — " And I, if I be lifted up, 
will draw all men unto Me." The world then entered 
upon a new era. There was an example of self-sacrifice 
— of atonement for the sins of others. 

Let us see for a moment what the effect of that ex- 
ample has been. Let us remember it has been the 
cause of starting and supporting relief for the poor, how 
it has promoted the amity of mutual relations between 
man and man, how it has built up charities, how it has 
controlled civilization and the formation of international 
laws, and how it shall continue to do so until the predic- 
tion of the prophets shall be realized, until nation shall 
have ceased to lift up its sword against nation, and they 
shall learn the art of war no more. Tell me, ye wild 
winds, where are the caves of your beginning ? Tell me, 
ye silent stars, what secrets do ye hold in your keeping ? 
Ye can never tell, and no angelic intellect can ever frame 
words to tell the power that slumbers in this divine author. 
Have you felt this power, my brother ? Has it caused 
you to put on holiness and consecrate your life to Christ ? 
Wherever the Gospel of Christ comes/it is the gospel of 
life. 

Once again in this connection, a great seed-thought of 



/ 



The Power of the Gospel. 327 

power in the Gospel is that of resurrection — of immortality. 
Who can measure the shadows that fall upon the home 
where the light of Christianity has not fallen ? The 
heathen mother loves her child as fondly as the Christian 
mother ; but when the shadows of the sepulchre begin to 
fall around the pagan home, when the grim monster 
wrenches the idol of her heart from her breast and hides 
it in the dust, what consolation can come to her — what is 
there to bring comfort and compensation to her distracted 
mind? The words of the song that nobody sings, the 
words that were lisped by little lips, the little shoes and 
the baby clothes she used to wear— all these little me- 
mentoes which fond affection cherishes are still there, but 
can she, as she stands over the remains of her loved and 
lost one, can she look away into the golden hereafter, and 
see the coming time when the glorious morning shall 
dawn upon the night of the tomb, and her loved one 
shall rise again in the beauty of immortality which will 
then be imparted to it ? Alas, alas ! she cannot. If she 
only could, how it would lift her spirit up, and crown her 
with the coronet of her beatific hope. This is the power 
which comes from our Christianity and the Gospel. 

I have somewhere read, some little time ago — I forget 
the author — that the most emphatic stride made in 
the history of the race was the supreme moment when 
Galileo pointed his telescope to the heavens and discov- 
ered the satellites of Jupiter, and there flashed up in his 
mind the glorious thought of an infinity above, and the 
second supreme hour of intelligence was that in which a 
number of fossil bones were laid before the naturalist 
Bufifon, and there opened before his mind the proofs of a 
pre-Adamite age of existence. In this supreme hour of 



328 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the history of the human race, man for the first time 
opened the territory of the Infinite, for the first time had 
a peep at [the hidden secrets of past ages. But what is 
all this, great and glorious though it be, to the grandeur 
of that prescience which looks for a future immortality, 
to a grand eternity open for humanity, and which sees in 
that future, and that immortality, life and love that last 
forever. Men and brethren, what divinity, and dignity 
does this fling about the elements of humanity. I think 
of poor Lazarus at the rich man's gate, his only friends 
the dogs that licked his sores ; I think of him as dying 
alone and forsaken, and then 

" Over the stones they rattle his bones, 
He's only a beggar whom nobody owns." 

Yet not alone ; I also remember that, according to this 
Gospel, when the beggar dies, angels carry him in their 
arms — for him the everlasting gates lift up their heads — 
for him the bosom of Abraham is prepared — for him are 
in store the beatitudes of God. He will hunger no more, 
thirst no more, die no more. Now, I ask you to think 
for a moment of the subject suggested by the great Apos- 
tle, to study this gospel of incarnation, of atonement, and 
of self-sacrifice for the good of others — to look still fur- 
ther to this gospel of resurrection and immortality, and 
you can understand how it is that it is the power of God 
unto salvation. 

I come to the experimental testimony that is created — 
a This Gospel came with much assurance/' Now, there 
are several modes of assurance. There is, first of all, as- 
surance by the demonstration of others, in the divinity 
of authority, and I ask you to call to memory the lesson 



The Power of tJu Gospel. 329 

of this morning with regard to the introduction of the 
Gospel into Thessalonica. Does it not look like a para- 
graph from early Methodist history? The Apostle, as 
his custom was, reasoned with the people out of the Scrip- 
tures, and with him was Jason whose house was opened 
to him. And on account of his preaching, and the suc- 
cess which attended it, the Jews, who believed not, moved 
with envy, took certain fellows of the baser sort, and 
gathered a company and set all the city in an uproar, 
and assaulted the house of Jason, seeking to drag Paul 
out before the people. My brethren, wherever the Gos- 
pel goes it turns the world upside down ; it means revo- 
lution, it means reform, it means regeneration — the regen- 
eration of society and human hearts. When the Apostle 
was writing to the Corinthians, he described certain men 
as having divorced themselves from virtue, and gone into 
alliance with death and hell. "Now," he said, "such 
were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sancti- 
fied, but ye are justified by the grace of the Lord Jesus 
Christ and by the spirit of your God." There was an 
omnipotent power which took hold of the intellect and 
moral manhood of these Corinthians, and built them up 
into a noble manhood ; and, as I stand here this morning 
and look you in the face, I would not venture to say that 
you were like the Corinthians — that you once cared for 
none of these things, but a sovereign power took hold of 
your innermost being, and has renovated you and made 
" you new men and women in Christ Jesus. " Oh ! " 
says Paul, " I was the chief of sinners, but by the grace 
of God I am what I am ;" and they took knowledge of 
him that he had been with Jesus. There is then, the as- 
surance of experience. The Apostle John says, " he 



330 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



that believeth hath a witness in himself/' This Gospel 
does not hide its head in darkness, but with the light of 
heaven in its face, it walks about before men and courts 
investigation. Try it and see if it will not give you a 
joyous sense of sin forgiven. Try it, ye men of vain and 
unholy desires, and see if it will not gloriously emanci- 
pate you. Try it, ye culprits of the night, round whose 
hearts there hang the dead leaves of a blighted memory — 
try it, and see if it does not bind up the broken heart. 
Who are they who are arrayed in white robes ? They 
are those who have gone before, that have turned over 
the leaf of the hymn-book at your side, and mingled 
their voices and their prayers with yours. They speak 
this morning from heaven, and they combine their testi- 
mony with the testimony of Christians upon earth. Theirs 
would be a sublime relation of the experimental power 
of the Gospel. 

Finally — and with this I close — there is the assurance 
of former triumph and victory. " Oh," says the Apostle, 
" who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? Shall 
tribulation or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or 
peril, or famine, or sword ? Nay, in all these things we 
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." One of the greatest 
scientific authorities in England, when on the verge of 
death, said to a friend, " My philosophic friend, I am 
afraid of the sepulchre." The finest intellect that Scot- 
land ever knew — I refer to Jlume — when he came to the 



The Power of the Gospel. 331 

moment of death, said, " I am going to take a leap in the 
dark." What does our Christian Apostle say ? He says, 
"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my de- 
parture is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the faith." There is here 
no mistaking the certainty with which he hopes for the 
future crown of brilliant immortality, and as he adds, it is 
not for himself only, but for all those who love the ap- 
pearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this very city, in 
connection with this very church, we have seen in the 
past many cases where robust boyhood and beautiful 
girlhood — we have seen cultured and scholarly manhood 
with intellect that searched the foundations of the earth, 
and complete and admirable womanhood, with a world of 
affection and goodness — we have seen them cross the 
river of death, with a sublime certainty of the future, and 
a triumphant confidence in God's salvation \ and— why 
should we hesitate to declare it — some of us have gone 
far into the valley — have thought indeed that we were 
over the river ; and yet through all there was a divine 
confidence that elevated us with an assurance of the 
better life. This was the work of the Gospel of God, and 
there be many hearts that respond to-day, and testify that 
they have been sustained and comforted. 

After many years and many sorrows, and once again 
looking into the faces of many I know, and yet more I 
know not, I would pray that my feeble words to-day may 
bring some of you to Jesus. May the Holy Spirit help 
you to come to Christ ; may he make us all better and 
prepare us to die, and may we gain with years a growing 
confidence in the Gospel ; and may we be ready to sub- 



332 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



scribe to the last verse of the hymn we are going to sing 
this morning : — 

" Should all the forms that men devise, 

Assault my faith with treacherous might, 

I'd call them vanity and lies, 

And pin Thy Gospel to my heart." 



THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE, 



SERMON XX. 

BY REV. W. WILLIAMS, Hespeler. 

" And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone ; in whom all the 
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the 
Lord : in whom ye also are build ed together for an habitation of 
God through the Spirit. — Eph. ii. 20, 21, 22. 

N tracing the development of the great scheme 
of redemption, we find a gradual transition from 
the sensible to the spiritual. In the earlier 
ages the Divine Being manifested His presence 
by tokens which were visible to the natural eye, 
and spoke with a voice which was heard by the 
natural ear. Moses saw the burning bush at Horeb 
and heard the proclamation, of the great "I AM." 
The children of Israel beheld the fiery pillar which guided 
them through the wilderness, and listened to the voice 
which spake with them out of the mysterious cloud. The 
truth was shadowed forth, rather than clearly taught, by 
the rites and ceremonies of the Levitical economy. The 
prophets predicted the glories of the kingdom of grace in 




334 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



\ 



symbolical terms, the profound meaning of which they had 
not yet fully reached. It was not until the Christian dis- 
pensation was inaugurated, that evangelical truth was 
clearly and literally taught, and the mysteries of the pre- 
ceding ages received their explanation. The utterances of 
the New Testament writers and speakers were so definite 
and intelligible that they soon found the way to the hearts 
of their hearers. The spirituality of their ministrations 
was equal to their clearness. Instructed by the Holy 
Ghost, men heard, and feared, and turned unto the Lord. 

But the apostles were not prepared to ignore the pre- 
vious dispensation. They felt and acknowledged their ob- 
ligation to it, and recognised the connection that existed 
between it and the system which followed it. The " foun- 
dation of the apostles " was also the foundation of " the 
prophets/' and in their estimation, the blessings of the gos- 
pel day were the results of the regular, and harmonious 
development of a plan of redemption which was revealed 
to the progenitors of our race immediately after the fall. 
In that plan the Levitical economy had its place, and pur- 
pose. It marked the pictorial stage in the religious edu- 
cation of our race. When the world was in its childhood, 
it furnished the " object lessons " which at once interested 
and instructed it. Though the dispensation is gone, its 
symbols remain. Many of them were reproduced by the 
New Testament writers with great effect, and by none more 
frequently than the Apostle Paul. Our text affords us an 
illustration of the manner in which he used them to illus- 
trate spiritual truths. We cannot read the passage before 
us without thinking of the magnificent temple of Solomon 
which is evidently referred to. To the converted Jews, 
whose memories were stored with traditions concerning 



The Spiritual Temple. 335 



" the glory of the former house/' and to the Ephesian 
converts, whose city was adorned with one of the most 
splendid temples of ancient times, this reference was as 
interesting as it was instructive. To the Christian of the 
present day, who remembers that the patterns of heavenly 
or spiritual things were found in the ordinances of the pre- 
ceding dispensation, its beauty and propriety are obvious. 
This comparison, which is rather implied, than stated, 
clearly and impressively sets forth the leading features of 
the Church of Christ. Without following the comparison 
into its details, we shall notice : — 

First, the spiritual temple to which the text refers. 

It is founded upon Christ. He is " the foundation of 
the apostles and prophets ; " " the chief corner stone." 
The Prophet Isaiah, referring to the same subject, says, 
" Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried 
stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation." Else- 
where the apostle pens the following statement, "For 
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
is Jesus Christ." The blessed Redeemer utters a similar 
declaration in relation to himself, " The stone which the 
builders rejected, the same is become the head of the cor- 
ner." As the chief corner stone is the largest, strongest 
and most important in the building, binding i together the 
walls upon which the superstructure rests, this term is ap- 
plied to Christ "to suggest,' 7 as Dr. Fairbairn appropriately 
observes, "His fundamental importance as prophet, priest 
and king to the church — -the massive strength of this foun- 
dation, and its admirable fitness for at once sustaining and 
binding together in blessed fellowship, the whole brother- 
hood of believers/ The Christian system rests upon the 
person and work of Christ. If this " chief corner stone " 



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be taken away, the temple must fall. In the religion of 
the New Testament, Christ is " all and in all." He is the 
strength and support of His church. Because He lives 
His people live, and while He lives His Church shall en- 
dure. Every Christless system of religion has perished, 
or must perish. Where is the religion of ancient Egypt ? 
a religion which adorned the banks of the Nile with tem- 
ples, and gave to the nation a race of priests so celebrated 
for their acquirements that to be " learned in all the wis- 
dom of the Egyptians" was to have reached the highest 
intellectual eminence then attainable. Where are the 
religions of warlike Assyria, classic Greece, and imperial 
Rome ? They have perished with the nations that ad- 
hered to them, for Christ was not in them. Equally dis- 
astrous is the career of those who reject Him. In the 
religion revealed from Sinai to the ancient Jews, Christ 
was certainly present. By type and shadow He was 
evidently set forth before them, and the atonement was 
its fundamental principle. But that principle the apostate 
posterity of Abraham refused to recognise. Whilst they 
went about to establish their own righteousness, they re- 
jected and slew Him. What was the result ? Their tem- 
ple was destroyed, their city desolated, and they became 
homeless wanderers over the earth. Let us of the present 
generation learn the lesson taught by the history of the 
past. Let us remember that no Christless morality, how 
ever high its standard ; no Christless philanthropy, how- 
ever benevolent its design ; no Christless philosophy, how- 
ever plausible its theories, can take the place of Christian- 
ity. The various systems of infidelity, superstition and 
error that are at present in existence must pass away, for 
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken their doom, but Chris= 



The Spiritual Temple. 



337 



tianity, resting upon "the stone which the builders rejected/' 
may defy the tempest and the flood. 

This temple is not constructed of earthly materials, but 
of saved and sanctified souls. Countless thousands who 
were once defiled and deformed by sin, have been cleansed 
from pollution, restored to the Divine likeness, polished 
after the similitude of a palace, and built into the rising 
walls of this glorious structure. The Great Architect has 
a place in this edifice for every converted sinner, be he 
rich or poor, bond or free, learned or unlearned, endowed 
with ten talents or only one. Many already stand as pil- 
lars in the temple, prominent and permanent, while others 
adorn it as with pure and precious gold. To many, com- 
paratively obscure positions are assigned, but they are all 
honourable in the sight of Him who looks at the heart, 
and in due time, " He shall bring forth their righteousness 
as the light, and their judgment as the noonday." The 
" apostles and prophets " are honoured in being specially 
mentioned by the inspired writer in connection with this 
subject. Though they were weak and fallible men, in- 
finitely beneath the Son of God in nature and dignity, yet 
they were " workers together with him ; " and their close 
association with Christ as well as their importance as parts 
of the spiritual temp]e, are indicated by the position as- 
signed them. There we find an Enoch, " the seventh 
from Adam/' and the first of prophets in the order of time ; 
a Moses, whose prophetic character was attested by his 
prediction of the coming of a mightier lawgiver than him- 
self ; a David, whose inspired utterances fell from his lips 
in the flowing numbers of sacred song ; an Isaiah, antici- 
pating with radiant countenance the glories of Messiah's 
kingdom ; a Jeremiah, whose eye is no longer dim with 
. v 



338 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

weeping, and an Ezekiel, whose writings glow with gospel 
light. There too, we find the eloquent and impetuous 
Peter, the loving John, the learned and logical Paul, and 
others of whom the world was not worthy, but to whom 
Christ has given an honourable place in His temple. 

This spiritual structure is declared by the apostle to be 
holy. In the earlier ages the temple of Solomon was 
solemnly dedicated to the worship of the Most High. 
The very materials used in its construction were sanctified. 
The names of the inner apartments of the temple, the 
" Holy Place/ 5 and the "Most Holy Place" were sug- 
gestive of the utmost sanctity. The priests who minis- 
tered at the altar were consecrated with rites of peculiar 
significance and were " holy unto the Lord." The very 
height upon which " the house of the Lord " rested was 
spoken of by the Psalmist as " the mountain of His Holi- 
ness. " If the material temple was thus carefully preserved 
from pollution, the spiritual temple is defended with equal 
care from defilement. Though serious defects may mar 
the purity, and impair the usefulness of the visible church, 
the mystical body of Christ is immaculate. Purity can- 
not embrace pollution. He who is " glorious in holiness " 
cannot admit to alliance with Himself those who are not 
conformed to His image. " Except a man be born of 
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
of God." Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 
" Holiness, " said the sweet singer Israel, " becometh 
thine house, O Lord, for ever." These conditions are un- 
alterable. They are applicable to our spiritual relations 
in this life and the life to come. The redeemed in heaven 
" are without fault before the throne of God," they " have 
washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of 



The Spiritual Temple. 



339 



the Lamb." Of the holy city, New Jerusalem, it is said, 
" And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that 
defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or 
maketh a lie ; but they which are written in the Lamb's 
book of life." The Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood 
upon the cross, that he might sanctify and cleanse His 
Church — " That He might present it to Himself a glorious 
Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing • 
but that it should be holy and without blemish.'' 

This glorious temple is declared to be " a habitation of 
God through the Spirit :" God has never left Himself with- 
out witness. "The presence of the Lord" is a phrase 
that occurs in the sacred history of our race at a very 
early period. It was something well denned in the minds 
of the earliest members of the human family. Our guilty 
first parents hid themselves, and Cain went out " from the 
presence of the Lord." The time and place of those ap- 
pearances were well known. It may be that Enoch was 
continually favoured with a visible manifestation of the 
presence of Jehovah, as the children of Israel subsequently 
were. In this way the church was, at that early period, 
" a habitation of God." The glory of the Lord afterwards 
filled the tabernacle, and in the days of Solomon occupied 
the " Most Holy Place " in the Temple. The prophets 
were favoured with visions in which they enjoyed inter- 
course with God. In the fulness of time the Shekinah, 
and visions of the Jewish dispensation gave place to the 
incarnate Word, and God was manifest in the flesh. But 
" the Holy Ghost was not yet given." Another manifes- 
tation of the Divine presence was to be made. Before 
the Son of God ascended to the right hand of the Father 
He said to His disciples, " Lo, I am with you alway even 



340 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



unto the end of the world," referring to His spiritual pre- 
sence which should remain with the Church through all 
time. He had previously led His people to expect the 
Holy Ghost, and this expectation was connected with a 
positive command to wait for its fulfilment, " And behold 
I send the promise of my Father upon you : but tarry ye 
in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power 
from on high." They waited in prayer and faith until the 
promised blessing came : cloven tongues like as of fire 
rested upon their heads, a heavenly baptism descended 
upon their hearts, and the dispensation of the Spirit was 
inaugurated. From that time until the present the Church 
of God has been a " habitation of God through the Spirit 
the Holy Ghost has been in the world convincing sinners 
of sin, converting them to God, and testifying to their re- 
newal by grace. He has been with His ministers making 
the preached word effectual, attracting souls to the cross, 
and spreading the kingdom of Christ. He has been with 
His people aiding them in their religious exercises, cloth- 
ing them with light and salvation, making them men of 
might, sanctifying and comforting their spirits, and making 
them meet for the celestial inheritance. This Divine Per- 
son shall remain in His Church to the end of time, fulfill- 
ing the Redeemer's promise, extending the influence of 
the truth, and hastening the coming of the day when Jesus 
"shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." 
Then the dispensation of grace shall be followed by the 
days of glory, when the beatific vision shall be enjoyed, 
and it shall be said, " Behold the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His 
people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their 
God, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 



The Spiritual Temple. 



34* 



and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor cry- 
ing, neither shall there be any more pain ; for the former 
things are passed away." 

Secondly. Having noticed the leading features of the 
spiritual temple we would call your attention to the pro- 
cess of its construction. 

This process was gradual and progressive. The Church 
was not formed by a creative world. It did not spring in- 
to being full orbed and perfect at once. The inspired 
writer of our text says it " groweth unto an holy temple in 
the Lord." Its construction began with the salvation of 
the first sinner. It is evident that there were some who 
served God before the flood, and these collectively formed 
a visible church at that early period. After the deluge, 
also, there were those who maintained the worship of the 
true God. After Abraham obeyed the Divine call, he, 
his household and those who were of like faith and prac- 
tice constituted the church. The same is true of the suc- 
cessive households of Isaac and Jacob. When the children 
of Israel were assembled at the base of Sinai, Jevohah re- 
cognised them as His people and gave them the law and 
the covenant. Those who came from surrounding nations 
to worship with the people of God, generally associated 
themselves with them in their civil as well as their re- 
ligious privileges, so that salvation was, in a certain sense, 
of the Jews. But when the Lord Jesus Christ suffered 
upon the cross, the vail of the temple was rent in twain, 
the middle wall of partition between the Jews and Gen- 
tiles was broken down, and it became evident that " God 
would have all men to be saved and to come unto the 
knowledge of the truth." The apostles, after our Saviour's 
resurrection, were commanded to " go into all the world 



342 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

and preach the gospel to every creature/' and men were 
soon led to know that " in every nation he that feareth 
God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." 
Since that time the gospel has been preached in almost 
every nation, and representatives from every quarter of the 
globe are now in the kingdom of God. But the work is 
by no means complete— it is scarcely begun. The whole 
earth is to be filled with the glory of God. The kingdoms 
of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of His Christ. The stone cut out of the mountain 
without hands is to become a great mountain, and fill the 
whole earth. The rising walls of the temple are to be 
built up, and the whole structure completed in the har- 
mony of its vast proportions. The work shall never cease 
" until the head stone thereof is brought forth with shout- 
ings of grace, grace unto it." 

Our text teaches us that the whole process of construc- 
tion shall be carried on " in Christ." " In whom all the 
building fitly framed together groweth &c." As Christ is 
the foundation, so is He the pervading spirit of the whole. 
He has been in the work, and with the workmen, from 
the beginning. " No man hath seen God at anytime, the 
only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He 
hath declared Him." It was Christ who cheered our fallen 
first parents with the promise of His own coming and vic- 
tory, who led Abel and Enoch in the way of salvation, and 
saved Noah and " the church which was in his house " 
from the deluge. He it was who called Abraham, re-es- 
tablished and perpetuated the church in his family, who 
gave the law and the testimony to the trembling children 
of Israel ; who inspired the prophets and commissioned 
the apostles. In spirit He is with His people still, cheer- 



The Spiritual Temple, 



343 



ing, supporting and strengthening them. Every part of 
the mystical building is under His inspection, every work- 
man labours in His presence, and " in Christ " shall the 
structure be completed. 

Our text reminds us of the mutual fitness and adapta- 
tion of the various parts of the spiritual temple, and the 
unity which shall characterize the completed structure. 
" In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth 
unto an holy temple." If we stand where a magnificent 
palace is about to be erected, and for which the materials 
are already collected on the ground, we see few or no in- 
dications of the splendid pile that is about to adorn the 
place. We know not the architect's purpose ; we have 
not access to his plans and specifications. We see nothing 
but unsightly heaps of material thrown together, apparently 
without regard to order. But the architect knows what is 
to be done with that material, and in his mind is a picture 
of the completed structure. He sees order and beauty, 
where we see nothing but confusion. We return to the 
same place after a few years, and, instead of unsightly piles 
of brick and wood and stone, we see a stately palace, the 
splendid realization of the architect's design. As we look 
upon the various sections of the visible church, as we see 
them differing from each other in doctrines, government 
and modes of worship; as we see them rivalling, and some- 
times antagonistic to, each other, we ask, " Is it possible 
to evolve from these discordant and antagonistic elements, 
a spiritual church distinguished for its unity, harmony and 
holiness ? " Unbelief answers, " no, it can never be," 
Faith replies, " Yes, it shall be." The Great Architect is 
in the midst of the churches, and He will accomplish it 
Though He has withheld from us the details of His glorious 



344 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



plan, He has revealed its grand and comprehensive out- 
line. That plan He is working out, and in due time we 
shall see its realization. The spiritual temple, one and 
undivided, complete in all its proportions, and adorned 
with the transcendent beauty of holiness, shall appear, the 
joy of earth, and the glory of the skies. The work is visibly 
progressing ; men are losing sight of minor differences and 
holding fast only to essentials. Different sections of the 
Church have been united, and the hope that other move- 
ments in the same direction will reach a successful termi- 
nation, cheers the people of God. Whether we shall ever 
see the visible church an unit or not, it is not for us to say ; 
but the day is not far distant when the watchman on the 
walls of Zion " shall see eye to eye," when " Ephraim shall 
not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim." 

Are we members of the Church of Christ, truly united 
to our living Head, built upon the sure foundation ? Let 
us examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith ; prove 
our own selves. A mistake in relation to a matter so im- 
portant as this may be fatal. If among the people of God, 
let us do all we can to promote their spiritual welfare as 
well as our own. Let us by prayer, and faith, and the 
persevering pursuit of perfect purity, maintain our connec- 
tion with Christ and His people, and promote the efficiency 
of the Church. Let us never weaken it by lukewarmness, 
nor disgrace it by apostacy. 

Are we builders under God ? There is much to encour- 
age us here. We are connected with a most important 
enterprise, the construction of the spiritual temple; we 
are associated in a most honourable partnership, workers 
together with God, and we are assured of the certainty of 
our reward. Let us be careful lest we build into the struc- 



The Spiritual Temple, 



345 



ture, wood, hay or stubble, for our work shall be tried by 
fire and these shall be burned, and we shall suffer loss ; 
but let us build into God's temple good and enduring ma- 
terial, that shall pass unscathed through the testing pro- 
cess, then shall God be glorified in His people. 

When the headstone is brought forth with shoutings of 
"grace, grace unto it" and the spiritual structure is com- 
plete ; when, radiant with the beauty of holiness, and glori- 
fied by the presence of the Most High, it shall present to 
an admiring universe the full realization of the Saviour's 
redeeming plan, may we be there to share the joy, and ren- 
der our tribute of praise to Him, " who loved the Church 
and gave Himself for it." Amen. 



CHURCH ORDER, A MEANS NOT AN 
END. 



SERMON XXI. 

BY REV. DAVID SAVAGE, 

PRESIDENT OF NEW CONNEXION CONFERENCE AND EDITOR 
OF THE EVANGELICAL WITNESS. 

Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament : not 
of the letter, but of the spirit : for the letter killeth, but the spirit 
givethlife.- — 2 Cor. iii, 6. 

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister 
questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith. Now the 
end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good 
conscience, and of faith unfeigned. — I Tim. i, 4, 5. 

And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those 
things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things 
which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a king- 
dom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve 
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. — Heb. xii, 27, 28. 

ONCE fell in with a statement to the effect 
that part of the mission of the existing order 
of things in this world is to illustrate and 
prove the capabilities of evil. And through 
all the history of the race no developments 
of evil have been more marked and awful than 
are to be seen in the perversion of what is in itself a good, 
to wrong and unworthy ends. Perhaps evil in its essence 




Church Order, a Means not an End. 347 

may be regarded as simply misappropriation. History, 
we are wont to say, repeats itself. It is so with evil in its 
history — an awful history. Can we come upon anything 
sadder than this power of transmutation, in the results to 
which it has led ? This representation of the case is just 
the reverse of that visionary and vain expectation of an- 
cient alchemy which sought for properties supposed to be 
lodged in some fastness of nature, whose action would re- 
cover, restore, and universally and finally bless. 

I might speak of this principle in its application within 
the sphere of things material, as where tons of grain-food 
lie rotting this moment in ten thousand distilleries, while 
ten thousand times ten thousand men, and women, and 
children are, whilst we sit here in comfort, suffering the 
pangs of hunger, and a prey to want. Or, in a more tech- 
nical application of this same principle to the department 
of dietetics, I might speak of irregularities in the general 
use of food, such as medical science recognises as very 
fully underlying the numerous ailments and physical de- 
rangements that afflict the race. Or, coming to the realm 
of intellect, what a range of action has this power of mis- 
appropriation. In the various departments of literature 
and art and science, what fallacies, and failures, and wrongs 
are attributable to this cause. 

O ! what is the history of our race but the history — sad 
and appalling — of a waste of force. Capabilities which had 
they been utilized for the great ends which are proposed 
in social and political economies, would have lifted up and 
enriched mankind, have been neglected — allowed to lie 
fallow \ or, what is worse, have been arrayed against each 
other ; or still worse, have been marshalled to wage cruel 



34^ The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



combat — summoned for fierce attack upon the dearest, 
and truest interests of mankind. 

Turn with me to i Corinthians, i. 26. What do we read 
there ? — " Not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
mighty, not many noble are called. " What is the expla- 
nation of this ? Are " wisdom " and social position in 
themselves evil ? No, not in themselves, but by perver- 
sion they are made so. It would almost seem as though 
this possibility on our part of converting into an evil what 
is in itself a good, furnishes the chief test of integrity in 
our case. For, be it observed, it is a test which is ever 
present with us. There is nothing so sacred but in our 
handling of it is capable of prostitution. Even the grace 
of God may be " turned into lasciviousness." 

To open the way for the more particular application 
of the view before us to the case I would discuss, we 
had read to us a few moments since the account of Christ's 
interview with the woman of Samaria. What is all 
this but an illustration of the tendency there is with us to 
rest in the letter instead of being made perfect in the 
spirit. The Jews were at fault here, degrading to unworthy 
ends the honour of an illustrious ancestry, making it but 
the occasion of sin, as in their vain-glorious boasting they 
cried, " We have Abraham unto our father/' Unduly 
exalting, and so misappropriating the externals of their 
religious system, involving, as we know all this did, the 
neglect of the " weightier matters of the law/ 7 And the 
history of Christianity is as sad in this respect as was the 
history of Judaism. What terrible sentences are these 
which have lately issued from one of the most influential 
pulpits in the world : 

" For the sake of religion, for the sake of the Church, 



Church Order, a Means not an End. 349 

for the honour of God amongst men it has been thought 
excusable for zeal to become a fire. Men have advocated 
and propagated an external Christianity by the sacrifice 
of every one of its internal attributes. The gates of 
hell have often opened into this world out of ecclesi- 
astical judicatories. It has not been the Church that 
has preserved religion ; it has been religion that has 
preserved the Church. To-day the whole Christian 
world is up in arms. Why ? Because members of the 
Church live such worldly lives ? O no, not if they behave 
well in ecclesiastical matters. The energy of thous- 
ands of noble brains is expended in the control of the 
external machinery." 

It is said of French physicians that they have such a 
passion for the theory of their profession that a patient is 
not safe in their hands, for they are so bent on mastering 
the diagnosis of disease, as their subject offers a field for 
its study, that the recovery of the patient is subordinated 
to considerations of science, a larger acquaintance with 
the principles and theory of the disease being considered 
an ample set off to the death of the victim. Alas ! do 
not we ecclesiastics act in much the same way as these 
medical scientists are reputed to do ? 

The word of the Apostle to the Corinthians has no 
doubt some measure of legitimate application to forms of 
Church order where he tells us : " There are differences 
of administration." But "it is the same spirit." As the 
body without the spirit is dead, so organism, though it 
have traditional prestige, the imprimatur of authority, so 
called, and all the sanction of the most hallowed associa- 
tions, is empty and vain— a dead and useless thing, want- 
ing the pulsations of a living Divine presence— the breath 



35° The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



of God. Says Fletcher of Madeley : " Forget not that 
Christ's Spirit is the savour of each believer's salt, and that 
He puts excellence into the good works of His people, else 
they could not be good. If thy works are compared 
to a rose, the colour and sweetness are Christ's ; if to 
a burning taper, the bright and cheering light comes 
from thy Bridegroom." So of the Church of God, which 
is the pillar and ground of the truth, its honour, its glory, 
its efficiency are conditioned on what ? — a faultless ritual ? 
regularity and precision in its methods ? a careful balanc- 
ing of rights ? the guarding of prerogative on the one 
hand, and an equal care for an unrestricted suffrage on the 
other hand ? Not any or all of these — and no one of 
them would we depreciate — will avail for the Church's 
success. 

Look at the homes scattered through this land. Some 
of them are palatial in their appearance and accommoda- 
tions ; some of them are humble enough. But is it the 
size of the building, or its material appointments, that 
give it the character of a home for its inmates ? No ; it 
is the domesticity that pervades its atmosphere. It is the 
presence of love in the subtle bonds of parental, filial, 
brotherly, sisterly regard that invest your dwelling with 
the untold charm and mighty magnetism which belong to 
home — and this, whether it be the palace of a Queen or 
the cot of a peasant. So as Christ stands in the midst of 
His people, breathes upon them, makes them to partake of 
His spirit, does His Church fulfil those conditions of 
brotherhood, peace, mutual and helpful services to which 
she is appointed. And as this breath Divine is imparted 
with the accompanying words, " Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost," is the Church furnished and equipped for the ful- 



Church Order, a Means not an End. 351 

filment of her ministrations to the outlying world, and 
does she receive an investiture of power in virtue of which 
" Whosoever sins she remits they are remitted, and who- 
soever she retains they are retained." 

Gibbon tells us of one of his heroes, Alexander Severus, 
that " he deemed the service of mankind the most accept- 
able worship of the gods." Perhaps we shall not go far 
astray if we accept this sentiment, even though it be from 
a heathen source. This is pre-eminently a practical, 
utilitarian age. Everything now-a-days is brought to the 
test of " Cui honor The great Macaulay fitly voices the 
genius of this modern period where your lot and mine, by 
God's appointing providence, are cast, when speaking of 
Plato, that grand old philosopher of the ancient period, 
praising his diction, he says : ".It was such as was to be 
expected from the finest of human intellects exercising 
boundless dominion over the finest of human languages/' 
but all this only to bring out by one of those contrasts of 
which the great historian was so perfect a master, the 
sweeping condemnation concerning Plato's philosophy, 
that, "it began in words and ended in words." 

Do I unduly depreciate symptoms of Church Order if I 
express my conviction concerning them that their pre- 
sense or their absence, their defectiveness or their sym- 
metry and perfectness (approximate) have not had so 
fully to do with determining the moral and spiritual cur- 
rents of this or any other age, as disciplinarians sometimes 
fondly conceive ? Look at early Methodism. What made 
it such a power ? Even when its processes were tentative, 
when its founder himself — if we may use the term founder 
in connection with such a movement as admissble at all 
when it refers to man — when Wesley himself was in doubt 



352 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

concerning the legitimacy of its agencies, and the entire 
movement was challenged on all hands as an irregularity, 
resistless as the tides of the ocean it rose and advanced. 
As we stand and behold this great sight, how fitting as an 
expression of our wonder and almost bewilderment are 
the grand words of the 114th psalm. 

That Church systems have a mission in this world I 
dare not question. But I am largely disposed to test 
their value by their products. Is not this a fair test ? 
Not that these products always have for the advantage of 
such demonstration a " local habitation and a name." 
More than one Church system has no doubt produced re- 
sults which elude processes of demonstration. Still the 
leading and more palpable mission of a Church system 
none, we presume, will deny to be that of giving scope — 
yes, and tone, and we may go farther and add increased 
volume, to those divine impulses which, born of the Spirit 
of God in the heart of man, move and sway and break 
forth from it. In the fourteenth chapter of Paul's first 
epistle to the Corinthians he gives certain directions re- 
specting methods of worship. The chapter closes with 
these words : " Let all things be done decently and in 
order." Ah ! that word done ! Under the provisions of 
Church order something is to be done. Alas ! that we 
have so fully lost sight of the doing in our own concern 
for the decency and order which are to regulate the doing. 
We have left out the verb in our misplaced preference for 
its qualifying adverbs. Better it seems to me that there 
should be thing, even if it be somewhat irregular, than 
that there should be nothing done. Dr. Wayland was 
once asked concerning a critic— the Doctor himself rather 
belonging to this class— is he a Christian ? Dr, W, x& 



Church Order, a Means not an End. 353 

plied : il Can he cast out devils ? " That was all the 
people cared for, because it is the true test of Christianity. 

It was a remark made in connection with the late 
Evangelical Alliance Conference, that some Christian 
ministers who had attended its sittings had found their 
old habits of exclusiveness intolerable after having tasted 
the unrestrained blessedness of brotherly love. This I 
have thought a sad testimony ; sad that such excellent 
men should ever have been influenced by such habits of 
exclusiveness. But it is still a sadder remark to be told 
that some of them, such as Bishop Cummins, of the Re- 
formed Episcopal church, had found it necessary "to 
break ecclesiastical bonds in order to live a larger Christian 
life." That the necessity spoken of here does not exist 
in the case of all church relations, even our own, is some 
thing on which we may congratulate ourselves, and on 
whose account we may, and ought to be devoutly thank- 
ful to God. 

Still we may as well face the question which, to mark 
our privileges and graduate our responsibility, is certainly 
becoming in our time prominent and irrepressible, as to 
whether the views of that large-minded and large-hearted 
man, Thomas Binney, may now be impinged on where he 
tells us he " desired to see comprehended in the same re- 
ligious community far greater differences of opinion and 
far greater varieties of ministry " than have hitherto been 
allowable. And why not ? Who shall say that it is not 
a ministry of these times in which God permits us to live 
to illustrate and prove that the charity of the Gospel is a 
mightier associating, and even organizing, force than any 
mere " bond of opinionative coherence." May we hope 
that we are on the threshold of the period appointed for 
w 



354 Th e Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 

this ministry ? The world has been waiting wearily for 
this time. But divine processes are usually deliberate. 
There is an Arabian proverb that no man is called of God 
till the age of forty. It seems a long time for a man to 
wait. And this method of the Divine procedure has a 
wider application than to the individual. But the issue of 
these processes often burst upon an astonished generation 
with startling and revolutionary suddenness. Is it to be 
so with us in this our day ? Speaking of proverbs brings 
me to another, an adage prevalent among the Jews, that 
when the tasks are multiplied it is time for Moses to ap- 
pear. And in this our day have not God's children been 
crying to Him by reason of the fierceness of oppression, 
the oppression upon their hearts of evils that brotherliness 
of spirit and largeness of view will yet find a way to ob- 
viate? Have we no intimation in the pressure of this 
question upon the attention of the Church, that by some 
means God is about to bring deliverance to Israel ? This 
mission of deliverance may not be embodied in individual 
leadership at any one geographical point. But is not our 
Moses to be discovered in the spirit of the age, a spirit 
everywhere abroad ? It is under the influence of such 
yearnings and hopes that I for one am prepared to give a 
hearing to my brother from his standpoint of idiosyncrasy 
and education, even though I may not think he holds, in 
either regard, the same vantage ground with myself. As 
in all the royalty of assured conviction, driving in our 
chariot, we light on Jonadab the son of Rechab, coming 
to meet us, and in salutation we say to him : " Is thy heart 
right, as my heart is with thy heart ? n and he answers, 
" It is," shall we not give him our hand, even though he 
may have to bend over a little — a not ungraceful attitude 



Church Order \ a Means not an End. 355 

— to welcome him to our side to hold brotherly associ- 
ation with us, and hurry forward with us in our chariot ? 
In seeking invitation into this higher " degree " of a prac- 
tical Christianity whose password is excelsior, I am pre- 
paring myself to listen with more deference to my neigh- 
bour when he expresses his belief that the embodiment of 
the principles of New Testament duty lay in a definite 
organization, is something which has been very much 
" left to the operation of two factors— the inner life of the 
Church, and the overruling providence of God." Further, 
from the tendency there is in all of us " to overlook the 
soul of things, and to attach ourselves exclusively to the 
forms in which it is expressed," I may mistake the spirit 
of my brother in pronouncing it less liberal than mine. 

With our hearts, and hopes directed to such diviner 
manifestations of a true Christian spirit, we shall do well 
to heed the conditions of all progress as suggested by the 
eccentric but forceful Carlyle where he speaks to us of 
"heroic toil, and silence, and endurance, such as led to the 
high places of the universe, and the golden mountain tops, 
where dwell the spirits of the dawn*" 



THE POWER OP CHRIST, THE MISSION- 
ARY'S STRENGTH. 



SERMON XXII* 

BY REV. E. B. RYCKMAN, M.A., 

GOVERNOR OF THE WESLEYAN COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, 

DUNDAS. 

" All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye 
therefore, and teach all nations." — Matt. xxviii,~i8, 19. 

HE encouraging connection between the two 
clauses of this text is the theme of this dis- 
course* The word " therefore " has nowhere* 
even in the Book of God, more force and 
meaning than in this particular place. The 
" Great Commission " was given to the disci- 
ples under circumstances the most discouraging that can 
be conceived. But side by side with the command, was 
given an encouragement the most stimulating that could 
be desired. The Apostles knew before this that their 
Master was the promised Messiah, and that the Divine 
pledge had been given that He should " have dominion 




The Power of Christ \ the Missionary's Strength. 357 

from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the 
earth f that He should " have the heathen for His inher- 
itance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His pos- 
session." But with regard to the homage Jesus was to 
receive, and the possession He was to inherit, they had 
entertained the most erroneous notions. They were now 
being undeceived. Instead of leading powerful armies 
and victoriously setting up His kingdom among men, 
Jesus was to entreat permission to establish His kingdom 
in the hearts of men. " Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock." Instead of wearing crowns and swaying scep- 
tres as earthly princes, they, the elect twelve, were still to 
be servants- — despised followers of the condemned Naza- 
rene. They could have trusted in their Master had He re- 
mained with them, for they had seen His power displayed, 
and winds and seas, diseases and death, men and beasts, 
angels and devils, all implicitly obeying His commands ; 
but He had just been crucified as a felon, and they re- 
membered His words, " The servant is not greater than 
his Lord ; if they have persecuted Me, they will also per- 
secute you." Now, that which encouraged these stricken 
men, and made a hero of each disciple as they went 
forth, twelve men on one side, and " all nations " on the 
other, was the announcement in this text, " All power is 
given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore 
and teach all nations." 

The Apostles' work unfinished, and the Apostles' en- 
couragement undiminished, have come down to us. This 
assertion of power is precisely the assurance that the 
Church of to-day needs to confirm her wavering faith. 
Many Christians are doubting. The work is so vast ! 
Seven hundred millions of enemies of the Gospel still in 



358 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the world ! So many and so formidable forms of idolatry 
and sin yet to be vanquished ! But to doubt is to ensure 
defeat Unless the Church believes in victory she will 
never get it. She will have no zeal, no self-sacrifice, no 
heroism, no enthusiasm, and consequently no success. 
She must be inspired with the thorough conviction that it 
is God's purpose and her privilege to make the Gospel 
victorious in all lands. In order to this, she must turn 
from the magnitude and the difficulties of the work, to the 
Power on the throne. She must come back to her prim- 
itive source of inspiration, from which, at the beginning, 
she caught the fire that sent her blazing through the 
world. She must stand again with Jesus on the mount 
of Ascension, and hear Him say, " All power is given unto 
Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all 
nations." 

I. Consider, first of all, the power of Christ as 
displayed in His works. "All things were made by 
Him." Whatever He undertook He accomplished. The 
worlds He began to build He finished. Not one of them 
all was left half-formed and motionless. He gave to each 
of them its orbit, its laws, its light, its impulses. And 
now they are rolling on with unchanging course, 

" Forever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine," 

" In the beginning " God began the formation of our 
own earth, and through the ages His mighty hand wrought 
upon it till it was finished. He reared the towering moun- 
tains, grooved the fertile valleys, spread abroad the green 
plains, gathered together the seas, and appointed them 
shores as He pleased, and never abandoned His work 



The Power of Christ \ the Missionary } s Strength. 359 

till He had painted every flower and chiselled every leaf. 
And having begun the redemption of our earth from sin, 
His Almighty power will not fail or be discouraged till 
the whole earth shall be filled with His glory. 

II. The sure fulfilment of prophecy illustrates 
the same truth — whatever the Redeemer undertakes, 
His power accomplishes. Ages may intervene, but the 
event infallibly justifies the prediction. Four thousand 
years passed away after man received the promise of a 
Saviour before that Saviour appeared. But Jesus came. 
In the fulness of time God visited and redeemed His 
people. Cyrus was mentioned by name on the page of 
prophecy 200 years before he was born ; but Cyrus came 
and gathered, as the Lord's shepherd, the exiled Israel. 

God does not deviate from His plan in order to punish 
the wretches who dare oppose His power. The Antedi- 
luvians flourished 120 years after He had cursed that 
guilty race ; but the flood came and swept them all away. 
Sodom was a fertile valley long after the cry of her enor- 
mities entered the ear of the God of Heaven; but the 
storm of fire came, and Sodom was a putrid lake. The 
Amorites were allowed 500 years to fill up the measure 
of their iniquities after God had promised their land to 
the seed of Abraham ; but though the intervening years 
wore away in distressing bondage, Israel did obtain the 
promised land. 

The prophet has uttered his voice concerning the sub- 
jugation of the nations to God. " The earth shall be 
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the 
waters cover the sea." Shall this be the only prophecy 
unfulfilled ? In this instance alone shall God begin to 
build and not be able to finish ? In this enterprise alone 



360 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

shall His power and wisdom fail ? No ! Christians have 
no reason to dismiss their hopes. The enemies of the 
cross have no reason to dismiss their fears. None may 
suppose that He whom they have regarded as Omnipo- 
tent, is not so after all. The kingdom of the Lord shall 
come, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 

III. But behold the power of Christ as mani- 
fested in what He has already done for His 
cause. 

When we consider the past, how the encouragement in- 
creases — how our expectations brighten ! In retracing the 
history of the Church, we find that, always when she was 
low, Christ raised her. Amid all the moral desolations of 
the old world the infant Church never was forgotten. 
God held the winds in His fist, and barred the fountains 
of the deep until Noah could build the ark and protect 
her from the storm. How wonderful were His interpo- 
sitions when the family of Abraham embodied the Church 
which He intended should overspread the earth ! In re- 
deeming them from bondage in Egypt, how He opened 
upon that guilty land all the batteries of His power, till it 
was glad to thrust His people out ! With the same mas- 
terly hand He conducted them to Canaan. The Red Sea 
divided ; Jordan rolled back ; the rock became a water- 
spring \ the heavens rained them bread ; their garments 
outwore forty years of wilderness life ; and the angel of 
the Lord, in a cloud of light, led them through the laby- 
rinths and dangers of the desert, till they ate of the fruits 
and drank of the fountains of the promised land. 

In all the following centuries, and in all vicissitudes of 
His cause ; at times when the powers of darkness had their 
hour, and devils were ready to shout victory — always, in 



The Power of Christ, the Missionary 's Strength. 361 

ways equally honourable to His omnipotence, He caused 
His people to triumph. 

This would be a pleasing theme, but time would fail to 
tell what Jesus has done in illustrating and glorifying His 
Omnipotence. Every age has recorded interpositions of 
His power, and every land beneath the shining sun bears 
some monument that tells to His honor. And if He has 
done so much in execution of His plan, will He abandon 
it now ? If He would float His Church above a drowning 
world, redeem her from bondage, escort her through the 
desert, reprove kings for her sake, arrest the sun to aid 
her victories, light up the gloom of dungeons by His smile, 
and cool the fires of the stake by His presence, will He 
forsake her now ? No, no ! He will do for Zion, if ne- 
cessary, just such things as He has done. His cause was 
never nearer His heart than now. He still loves His 
people as He loved Joshua and David, and hates His 
enemies as He hated Pharaoh and Sennacherib. And 
His arm is not shortened. For an enslaved church He 
would raise up another Moses, for an apostate church 
another Luther, and for a sleeping church another Wesley. 

IV. Behold the power of the Son of God in what 
He is doing now. 

This is a stirring age. These are enterprising times. 
This is a day of heavenly exploit. The ordinary opera- 
tions of the Church are accomplishing much. These have 
been seasons of dulness and dimness, but speaking com- 
prehensively, the lighting up of the past half century has 
been delightful. A faint reflection of that apostolic light 
which sheds its glory on Jewish and on Gentile lands. Mis- 
sionary operations are going on in every part of the world. 
God's word is now read in many tongues in which, until 



362 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



lately, not a word of inspired truth was ever written, is 
traversing deserts, taming savages, and pouring celestial 
light into eyes which never saw its beams before. 

Many of the noblest youths of Christian lands, some of 
them with the brightest prospects in life, are willing to fore- 
go every earthly advantage, proud of the honour of being 
missionaries of the cross. In engaging in His service 
these men of learning and strength, the Master has a great 
work for them to do. Asia and Africa have opened their 
broad fields to receive the seeds of gospel truth; the de- 
luded victims of idolatry and superstition are waking from 
their sleep and shaking off their chains, and those accursed 
families of gods are sickening and dying from the land. 
He who is thus employing His messengers and servants, is 
also providing means for their support. Churches and 
congregations which, not long ago, could spare nothing 
for the cause of evangelism, and doled out cautiously the 
pittance necessary to support the gospel at home, are 
now laying rich gifts and sacrifices on the altar of missions. 
Let the pulse of Christian charity beat a little stronger, 
and, instead of finding men denying their ability to give 
for the extension of Christ's kingdom, we shall find the 
wealthy willing to sell houses and lands if necessary, to 
save the heathen from hell — and the really poor, weeping 
over their inability. Let benevolent enterprise increase 
still as it has increased recently, and God and His blessing, 
and 20 years would suffice to put the Bible into every lan- 
guage that is spoken, and send the missionary into every 
dark corner of earth ; and 50 years would evangelize the 
world, tame the lion and the asp, and dot every desert 
with temples devoted to the Deity. 

It is true that to-day Christians constitute but a fraction 



The Powei of Christ, the Missionary 's Strength. 363 

of the population of the globe, yet to that fraction God 
has given in actual possession four of the six grand divi- 
sions of the earth. And what is more, He has given to it 
the wealth, the manufactures, the commerce, the learning, 
the art, the science, the civilization, the civil and military 
factors and forces which constitute national greatness and 
dominion. Christianity has outstripped all other religions, 
and, to-day, is the only aggressive religious power in the 
world. The false religions of the earth have been smitten 
with decay. The great Oriental faiths are, according to 
the best witnesses, crumbling away. China and India are 
fast reaching that condition of doubt or indifference which 
prevailed throughout the Roman Empire at the advent of 
Christianity, and prepared the way for its triumph. Pa- 
ganism for 40 centuries has done its best, but results in 
failure. Mohammedanism has done no better. Once, in 
forty years, it conquered more of the world, than the Roman 
armies in four hundred. But now after a history of 1,260 
years, it is powerless before the armies of Christendom, 
and can hope for no more conquests. Infidelity has done 
worse. With all its boastings it does not possess political 
jurisdiction on a single inch of territory on the face of the 
earth. Judaism is in trouble, and is seeking relief where 
alone she can find it — in the bosom of Christianity. 

The great powers of the world are Christian powers, 
and are great precisely in proportion to the purity of their 
Christianity. Three Protestant nations lead the van. The 
weaker states of Christendom are those which have cor- 
rupted Christianity, claimed the Word of God, and hindered 
the work of Christ among men. Popery is no longer an 
element of civil power even in Europe. Its old fulmina- 
tions no longer disturb the nations. If it spreads to this 



364 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



new world it is, in great measure, to melt away. Thus all 
the obstacles to the spread of evangelical Protestantism are 
dissolving and allowing a free course to the gospel. 

Consider the oppositions against which Christianity has 
advanced to her present position. The power of Christ 
has controlled them all. What turmoil of nations there 
has been ? O ! the number and cruelty of the wars that 
have raged ! How quick the succession ! Before the 
flame has gone out in one place, some fiend has snatched 
the brand from the smouldering heap and kindled a flame 
in another place. And so war has touched and kindled 
war in almost unbroken succession from the beginning 
until now. But in all this, righteousness has triumphed. 
No one knows where the flame shall burst forth next. 
But the Church has learned the lesson of trust in Him to 
whom all power belongs. 

The world is unsettled, Europe especially so. Compli- 
cations exist which the hoariest sagacity fails to detach. 
The keenest insight cannot pierce the vail of to-morrowi 
But one thing is certain. All power is in the hand of our 
victorious Emmanuel. And whether the cause of the Pope 
is up or down ; whether the cause of royalty is up or down ; 
the cause of God is up : the cause of righteousness is up. 
Straight through the criminal schemes and selfish policies 
of men, the purpose of God goesjlike lightning to its exe- 
cution; consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwill- 
ingly, they are made to subserve His glorious purpose of 
subduing the world unto Himself. Christ is absolute sov- 
ereign on earth. There are those who think God has made 
this world as a man makes a watch. After he has made 
and fitted wheels and pinions, and levers and springs, and 
has set it running, and has sold it out of his shop, it is 



The Power of Christ, the Missionary's Strength. 305 

nothing more to him. The responsibility of winding it up, 
cleaning it, and keeping it running devolves on the man 
who has bought it. So, they say, God has disposed of the 
world. That is not the testimony of Scripture, of fact, nor 
of reverent love. Their testimony is that, as a father at 
the head of his family, as a mother in the midst of her 
household, is intent on securing the welfare of each child, 
so God is managing and directing an administration that 
is full of love to His creatures and adapted to promote the 
best interests of each individual. 

But see further how Jesus by His Almighty power has 
made the wrath of man to praise Him through the learned 
attacks which have been made by scientific men upon re- 
velation and religion. Scarcely has science won a new 
trophy in the enlarging field she occupies which profane 
ingenuity has not seized and employed as a weapon 
against the truth. Men have measured the skies, counted 
their shining hosts, and then wrested them as arguments 
to disprove the agency — nay, the very being, of Him 
whose eternal breath kindled those wonderful fires. But 
still " the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
ment sheweth His handy work." Men have explored the 
depths of the earth, broken the silence of a thousand ages, 
and revealed the secrets of departed worlds, and then af- 
firmed that our globe is eternal — endeavoured to erect a 
material throne which should rival the throne of Jehovah. 
But " the testimony of the rocks/' in the language of an 
apostle, is : " We can do nothing against the truth, but for 
the truth." Ethnologists have studied the physical and 
linguistic peculiarities of men, and then declared that the 
Adam of the Bible cannot be the father of the human 
races. But physiology corroborates the Scripture, and 



366 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



asserts that " God hath made of one blood all nations of 
men. Archaeologists have appealed to antiquity, declar- 
ing that they would find among the ruins of Babylon, 
Nineveh, and Jerusalem, dust enough to blacken the brow 
of Christianity for ever. Ah ! this is an old hereditary 
boast ! Julian was to " conquer the Galilean," and Vol- 
taire was to "crush the wretch." But the Galilean con- 
quered Julian, and the Crucified One crushed Voltaire. 
To quote the words of William Arthur, " that Jesus, whom, 
less than a century ago, scientific infidelity threatened to 
expel from the regards of mankind, now appears en- 
throned on the science of the universe. Every star of 
the firmament sparkles in His diadem ; the whole earth 
dutifully presents herself as His footstool ; at that foot- 
stool all the sciences meekly bow, hail Jesus as the Light 
of Lights," and loyally proclaim " all power is given unto 
Him in heaven and in earth." 

But besides the opposition of that coarse, old-fashioned 
infidelity, there has been that of the politer scepticism 
which would eulogize Jesus to death just as Judas kissed 
Him unto death. Christianity has been attacked, not only 
by reckless scientific men, but by theologians and profes- 
sedly religious men, by ecclesiastical " principalities and 
powers," by " spiritual wickedness in high " churchly 
" places*" There have been defections from the ranks of 
Christ where least of all they could have been expected. 
Dignitaries of the church in high ecclesiastical position 
have been traitors. Proud banners inscribed to Christ 
have been allowed to droop ; nay, the banner-bearers have 
trailed the sacred symbol in the dust, while the scarlet 
ranks of evil have cheered amain. But, blessed be God, 
we know who will conquer ! You may have crossed 



The Power of Christ, the Missionary^ Strength. 367 

Niagara River in the little ferry-boat that plies just below 
the Falls. If so you have observed the confusion of the 
waters. No two square yards are doing the same thing. 
There are currents and cross-currents, and whirlpools — 
eddies in every direction. It is as if, having made the 
fearful leap of the Falls, they knew not which way to run, 
and consequently were running hither and thither and 
every-whither. And yet there is not a single drop in all 
those eddying, hurrying, tumultuous waters that is not 
under the constant control of the nicest natural laws. And 
so in the moral world. God rules in the storm as well as 
in the calm. And men's wars, and rage, and wickedness, 
and passions, and avarice, and infidelities, and corrupting 
ambitions, and all disturbing forces of the soul are but 
storm-winds and storm-clouds and storm-elements of vari- 
ous kind under the placid hand of God. Now, if we did 
not know this we might be alarmed. We might run to the 
stern of the vessel and awaken the sleeping Christ, and 
cry, " Lord save us, we perish ! " But we know better. 
Let the overburdened, wearied Master sleep. We cannot 
perish if He is in the vessel. " All power is given unto 
Him in heaven and in earth.'' 

V. But observe the power of Christ in the pre- 
paration of His instruments. Amidst the conflicts 
and oppositions, aye, by these very means our Lord 
prepares His most effective agent. Men, strong, sterling 
men, are not made by silk and velvet handling, but by 
stone and iron handling. Heroes are made as swords 
are made* The rough ore is thrown into the furnace 
and melted, thrown into another furnace and melted 
again, then taken out only to be thrown into another 
furnace seven times hotter and melted over again. It 



368 



The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



is then put under the trip-hammer which smites it as 
if the thunder were kissing it. And then amidst the 
dust and grime of the workshop, by various batterings 
and raspings it becomes the polished blade that glitters 
in the shop window, or does its deadly work on the field 
of battle. St. Paul never would have been the valiant 
soldier of the cross he was, had he not been arraign- 
ed before magistrates and kings, stoned once almost 
to death, five times whipped, imprisoned times unnum- 
bered. It was these things that made him so fearless in 
his Master's cause. Luther would never have been the 
invincible hero he became if threatening death had not 
confronted him at every step, if papal bulls had not been 
fulminated against him and flaming faggots brandished in 
his face. Wesley would never have become the brave 
evangelist he was, had he not been ridiculed at Oxford, 
mobbed at Walsal, excluded from the pulpits and pursued 
by the ecclesiastical powers of the realm. This stern dis- 
cipline, it is true, claims our symathy for those who suffered 
it, but it was thrice blessed of God to the preparation of 
those men for their glorious work. 

VI. But lastly, consider our Lord's spiritual 
power — His power to subdue man's stubborn will, win his 
worthless affections, and purify and save his guilty soul* 
Up to the time He spake these words there had been no 
such manifestations of His almighty mercy as have been 
frequently witnessed since. In His dying hour He perform- 
ed a miracle of grace, and the hardened thief was impressed, 
enlightened, converted, saved ; but only one, so far as we 
know, of all the multitudes that surrounded Him, witnesses 
of His passion, and of His patience, was converted by His 
power. But after He had ascended to His throne, led 



The Power of Christ, the Missionary s Strength. 369 

captivity captive, and received gifts for men, the glories 
of the day of Pentecost were but the beginning of won- 
ders illustrating the mighty influence of the Son of God to 
prick the heart, convince the reason, convert the soul, dis- 
burden the conscience, destroy the dominion of sin, and 
fill the believing heart with the faith, and hope, and holi- 
ness of the Gospel. Many of you have felt that power. It 
is with you a personal experience. You know that Jesus 
is able to save the chief of sinners, to save him to the 
uttermost. You know that the Son of Man hath power 
on earth to forgive sin — to cleanse from all unrighteous- 
ness. You remember when you were far from God, and 
without hope ; in sin and in the way to hell, and not 
more than half aware of it : but He laid His hand upon 
you — that hand that was nailed to the cross — and arrested 
your thoughtless career ; extorted the cry, " What must I 
do ? " and then answered it by His Spirit and His Truth ; 
imparted " that blessed sense of guilt," and made you feel 
your thraldom, and then drove Satan back to hell with his 
bruised head, and made you feel His freedom. Now, that 
power is the same almighty influence to others that it is 
to you. Christ crucified is the power of God unto salva- 
tion to the most heathenish of the heathen as well as to 
you. He is not limited to this place, nor to this land, 
but must be preached in all lands upon the broad face of 
the earth. Wherever a human foot has wandered — wher- 
ever man's rebel will has set itself against the will of God 
— wherever the human mind is blinded by ignorance and 
superstition — wherever the heart is polluted by sin and 
crime, and the soul is burdened, and groaning, and perish- 
ing in despair — there Christ's almighty power may be felt, 
giving light to the darkened, pardon to the guilty, purity 



370 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

to the polluted, and righteousness and peace and joy in 
the Holy Ghost to every trusting spirit. 

Will you go, therefore, and teach your wretched and 
perishing fellow-men ? Will you go ? It may be that there 
is some one among you upon whom God would lay His 
hand, and qualify and call to stand alone upon some dark 
foreign shore, to unfurl on some stronghold of the devil 
the banner of the cross. If so, a life of much toil and 
sacrifice would be yours ; but happy is that man to whom 
God assigns work that would be joyfully accepted by the 
highest angel in the third heaven. Bright avenues of 
worldly prosperity may open before you, and you may re- 
fuse a commission to preach the Gospel, but others will 
go and have the toils, the triumphs and the rewards. 
" Let no man take thy crown." 

Will you pray for the coming of Christ's kingdom ? If 
you think it a burden to pray for the prosperity of Zion, 
you may refuse, but her cords shall be lengthened notwith- 
standing. There are those who consider the duty a privi- 
lege. If duty did not bind them to pray they would weep 
to be denied the favour of advocating God's cause before 
His throne. " Pray that the word of the Lord may 
have free course and be glorified." 

Will you contribute of your abundance for the advance- 
ment of Christ's Kingdom? You may withhold if you 
choose. Some happy beings will have the work and the 
reward. The work will go on, if not with us, then without 
us. The gold is His ; the silver is His ; and all power is 
His in heaven and earth. " Give, and it shall be given 
to you." 

Will you open your own heart to Christ that He 
may establish His wisdom within you ? If you do 



The Power of Christ \ the Missionary 's Strength. 371 

not wish to be an heir of God, and live in Heaven for- 
ever, you may refuse. But the celestial choir will be full. 
The marriage supper of the Lamb will be furnished with 
guests. There will be " a great multitude whom no man 
can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
tongues/ ' to stand before the eternal throne and sing 
" Salvation to our God which sittethupon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb." You are invited. Do not exclude 
yourself. " Give diligence to make your calling and elec- 
tion sure for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you 
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

But if any shall determine to enter into league with the 
enemies of the Cross and oppose the Gospel, they can do 
so ; but the cause will prosper. They will accomplish 
their own ruin, not that of the Gospel. It was never 
before so foolish and dangerous to be an enemy of Christ 
as now. No opposition can be effectual. Certain disaster, 
discomfiture and shame await the enemies of the Cross. 
Men may set their faces against heaven and righteousness, 
and seek to make their own unrighteous w T ills victorious, 
and may think that they are succeeding, until God swings 
round His retributive hand and, by a stunning blow, in- 
terrupts their shout of victory and turns it into a groan of 
defeat. 

But His strong arm is strong to^save. He who could 
cast us down can exalt us to heaven. O may He give us 
guidance and grace that we may love Him and His cause, 
so that while we rejoice in the visible advance of His 
kingdom, we may have the additional gladness of know- 
ing that we contribute something to the approach of that 
time when — 



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" From dawn to the sunset, 
Unchecked on their way, 
Hosannas shall follow 
The march of the day 

when every knee sha.ll bow, and every tongue confess 
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 



PREACHING CHRIST. 



SERMON XXIII. 

By REV. HENRY POPE, Jr. 

PRESIDENT OF NEW BRUNSWICK AND P. E. ISLAND 
CONFERENCE. 

' Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man 
in all wisdom ; that we may present every man perfect in Christ 
Jesus." — Colossians i. 28. 

STRONOMY teaches that all the planets in 
the solar system, with their attendant satel- 
lites, while deriving their light from the sun, 
concur, in obedience to an uniform law of 
gravitation, in doing homage to his supremacy, 
as the stupendous central power which con- 
trols, conserves, and harmonizes all their movements. 

What the sun is in the material system in which he oc- 
cupies so conspicuous a position, and exerts an influence 
so potent and pervading — that, our Lord Jesus Christ is, 
in the grand economy of saving truth — its central power 
of attraction — its life and light — according to the graphic 
description of the last of the Old Testament Prophets, 




374 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the " Sun of righteousness " risen upon our darkened 
sphere with healing in His wings. So thought St. Paul, 
for in his creed, experience and ministry, Christ was the 
"Alpha and Omega/' "the Author and the Finisher," 
" the all and in all." Would he characterize Christian 
theology ? He styles it " the truth as it is in Jesus/' 
Would he describe his religious experience ? He says, 
" Christ liveth in me." Would he avow the theme of his 
ministry? He declares it to be "Jesus Christ and him 
crucified." 

Through evil as well as good report, when deprived of 
personal liberty, as well as when with unrestricted freedom 
he went in and out among the churches, he ever tenaci- 
ously clung to Christ and gloried in His cross. When he 
wrote this Epistle he was confined in a Roman prison, 
where he had been cast by the Emperor Nero, solely on 
account of his having preached Christ. Amid the damp 
and dismal darkness, and the sobering solitude of his 
cheerless cell, does his faith falter ? does his love grow 
cool ? Verily, no ! Forth from its grim walls sound out 
the notes of his heroic trust in God, and undying affec- 
tion for his Saviour. Listen. " Yea doubtless, and I 
count all things but loss for the excellency of the know- 
ledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : " " For the which cause 
I also suffer these things ; nevertheless I am not ashamed 
— for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded 
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
Him against that day." Under these circumstances it 
was that tidings reached him of the triumphs of the Gospel 
at Colosse — intelligence that filled him with great joy. 
His rejoicing, however, was moderated by the accompany- 
ing information that false teachers had crept into that 



Preaching Christ. 



375 



youthful Christian community, and corrupted the minds 
of some of its members. This state of things, appealing 
to his jealousy for the honour of Christ, and his love for 
precious souls, was the occasion of his writing this 
valuable epistle. 

Besides the numerous and judicious counsels, suited to 
the peculiar condition of the Colossian believers, with 
which it is enriched, this letter contains a masterly vindi- 
cation of the supreme dignity and divine glory of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. He shows how this transcendent 
verity — that Christ crucified is a Divine Saviour, — consti- 
tutes the grand centre around which all other truths of 
the evangelical economy in beautiful harmony revolve, 
and hence the prominence assigned to this doctrine in 
the ministry of himself and his brethren in the apostle- 
ship. It is in this connection we find the words of our 
text: — "Whom we preach, warning every man, and 
teaching every man in all wisdom : that we may present 
every man perfect in Christ Jesus." 

These words as we understand them, teach us what 
ought to be the theme, the mode, and the motive of the 
Christian ministry. We propose to examine tbe topics in 
the same order in which they are presented. 

I. The theme of the Christian ministry. 

" Whom we preach," writes the Apostle. Whom did 
they preach ? Let the immediately previous words sup- 
ply the answer, " Christ in you the hope of Glory." 
What should ministers preach concerning Christ ? If the 
preaching and testimony of the apostles may be their 
directory, then we may answer as follows : 

i. Christ is to be preached as the Son of God. 

We cannot but have observed the commanding promi- 



376 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

nence given by the apostles in their writings to the doc- 
trine of the proper, and essential divinity of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. St. John testifies of Him, " This is the true God, 
and eternal life." St. Peter writes, " For we have not fol- 
lowed cunningly devised fables, when we made known 
unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
but were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received 
from God the Father honour and glory, when there came 
such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, ' This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' " St. James 
designates Him, "our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of 
Glory." St. Paul declares Him to be " the great God and 
our Saviour Jesus Christ : " the Son of God : "— " the 
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His per- 
son." In the Epistle He affirms of Him, " For in Him 
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." 

Contrasting the Gospel with the law of Moses, and the 
institutions of the Jewish Church — the apostles saw in the 
divinity of the Saviour it reveals, the reason of its un- 
rivalled power, and peerless authority. Their highest im- 
pressions of the law of God were derived from the con- 
sideration that He who died on Calvary, was the Lord of 
life, and rich in glory— not only in the form of God, but 
equal with God. If such importance were attached by 
these inspired men to this doctrine, may we not justly as- 
sume that, in their ministry, as well as in their epistles, 
they would give it a very conspicuous place ? When we 
reflect upon the relation this doctrine sustains towards 
the redemption economy — being to that economy what 
the keystone is to the arch, the foundation to the super- 
structure- — or the soul to the body, we feel that it cannot 
be held with too firm a grasp. This conviction is 



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377 



strengthened as we observe the undisguised efforts which 
are being made by theological adventurers, and self-con- 
stituted teachers of religious faiths, in this age of rational- 
istic heresies, and scientific oppositions, to eliminate from 
Christianity the Divine element which is its life, and 
strength and glory. The present is a period when the 
Christian pulpit should give no uncertain sound upon this 
cardinal point. With a holy indignation let us hurl back 
to the regions of falsehood, whence it came, the God-dis- 
honouring lie, that Christianity is only one of a series of 
successively improving developments of human wisdom 
and virtue — to be superseded in its turn (even if it be 
not already superseded) by some modern expression of 
the liberated thought of mankind. Fearless of all suc- 
cessful contradiction from the words of history, the re- 
searches of philosophy, and all just interpretation of the 
divine oracles, may we affirm that by the Christ of the 
Gospel there have been revealed mysteries so sublime, 
and virtues so exalted, and deeds in the interest of 
humanity so superhuman in their physical grandeur and 
moral glory, achieved, as to compel our admiring faith to 
exclaim, " My Lord, and my God ! " We point them to 
the vaulted heavens where through illimitable space 
myriads of worlds revolve ; and, on the authority of the 
God of truth, we tell them that, among all those magnifi- 
cent and brilliant orbs, there is not one which was not 
created, and is not upheld by Jesus Christ. 

Before His advent, the Seraphim worshipped Him as 
the thrice holy Jehovah, the Lord of hosts — of whose 
glory the whole earth was even then full. When on earth, 
He claimed and received divine honours and worship, 
and now that He is once more enthroned in heaven, the 



378 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



adoration of angels and men are poured forth before Him 
in extollation of His achievements as the Redeemer God. 
If a mere creature could create the vast universe, and if it 
be not idolatry in angels or men to offer divine worship 
to a created being, then we admit our error in regarding 
Christ as essentially and practically divine. But if reason 
and revelation equally denounce such assumptions as 
alike baseless and blasphemous (as they unquestionably 
do), then must Christ's own words be true, " I and My 
Father are one ! " 

2. Christ is to be preached as the Son oj man. 

The great majority of the Christian Church believe 
that as our Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God by an 
eternal generation, so He is the Son of Man by the 
mystery of the Incarnation. The great object of His 
mission to our world was our redemption. The accom- 
plishment of this mighty purpose involved His sacrificial 
death. It was fitting that He should assume the nature 
of those whom He undertook to redeem, therefore, He 
took upon Him, not the nature of angels, but " the seed of 
Abraham." When He came into the world saying, " Lo 
I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me/' 
He adds, " but a body hast thou prepared for Me/' thus 
referring to the supernatural provision made for His as- 
sumption of our nature, or, as another rendering of the 
language reads, " My ears hast thou opened/' or " bored/' 
in allusion to the ancient custom of boring the ears of 
servants, and harmonizing with the words of the Apostle, 
" He took upon Him the form of a servant/' and with 
His own declaration, " Even as the Son of Man came not 
to be ministered unto, but to minister," or to save, " and 
to give His life a ransom for many." 



Preaching Christ. 



379 



Guided by the star of Gospel story we come to Beth- 
lehem and find the infant Jesus, and thence follow Him 
along the whole career of His humiliation, and as we pass 
from stage to stage we are more deeply convinced of His 
zeal and personal humanity. Gazing upon this side of 
Christ's nature we are filled with humility and grateful joy. 
We are humbled, for it was our guilt that rendered neces- 
sary He should stoop so low as to take upon Himself a 
nature capable of suffering and death. We rejoice when 
we remember that He who stooped so low is one so high, 
and hence so mighty to save. For more than thirty years 
He sojourned upon earth, mingling among men in the 
true brotherhood of our humanity. His heart overflows 
with love, His voice was ever eloquent of peace, and His 
hands stretched forth to bless. The heroic love which 
induced Him to carry our sorrows, and acquaint Himself 
with our grief, reached its highest development when upon 
the altar of the cross He poured out His soul unto death 
for the transgressors. Then was His human soul riven 
with the fiery bolts of divine vengeance, and His human 
body "wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for 
our iniquities." Clothed with that humanity which ex- 
pired on Calvary, and was raised from the dead by the 
glory of the Father, He had passed into the heavens, 
there to appear in the presence of God for us. Too 
frequently is this assuring fact of our Saviour's perfect 
humanity, securing for us in Him a personal and kindred 
friend, lost sight of by His Church. This ought not to be. 
We are taught to remember that He is touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities, and knows how to succour them 
that are tempted. What comfort flows from the thought, 



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" He in the days of feeble flesh, 
Poured out His cries and tears, 
And though exalted feels afresh, 
What every member bears 

As the Son of God, His divinity gives completeness to 
all His mediatorial sufferings as man, whilst by virtue of 
His omniscience and omnipresence, He maintains in this 
globe the influence and helpfulness of His humanity. As 
" the man Christ Jesus," He still cherishes for our race 
the love and sympathy of a human brother amid all their 
wants, and weakness, and woes ; while as the Son of God, 
He is able to lift them up above the reach of them all. 

3. Christ is to be preached as the Saviour of the world. 

The world needs a Saviour. Since the fatal hour of 
Adam's fall in Paradise, sin, like a lawless, turbulent 
tyrant, has held our race in the chains of a cruel, crushing 
despotism. Like a virulent and loathsome disease, its 
empoisoning influence taints the blood of every human 
being. Sin is a terrible evil. Guilt and misery are its 
fruits in this world, and in the world to come, the bitter 
pains of eternal death. " O sin," exclaims one, " how 
hast thou curst us ! Thou hast thrown up a barrier be- 
tween us and God, with thy chilling breath thou bast 
extinguished the light of our household joys, thou hast 
unstrung our harp, and filled the air with discordant cries, 
thou hast unsheathed the sword, and bathed it in human 
blood, thou hast dug every grave in the bosom of the fair 
earth ; but for thee we should not have known the name 
of widow or orphan, tear and sigh, sorrow and death ; 
but for thee our hearts had been untorn by a pang, and 
our joy pure as the ecstacies of heaven ! " The cry of 
humanity in every age has been substantially, " O 



Preaching Christ. 



wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death ? " " What must I do to be saved ? " 

To these inquiries, interesting beyond all possible ex- 
pression, the echoes of Christ's voice, lingering in the 
record of this Book, furnish the only life-inspiring res- 
ponse. " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He 
hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; He 
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach de- 
liverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the 
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach 
the acceptable year of the Lord." " For God so loved 
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." 

Jesus Christ is the Balm and Physician at Gilead, the 
Fountain opened, the True Bethesda. Sound it out East 
and West, North and South, that Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners. Tell the plague-spotted millions 
" that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 
Let them know that " He tasted death for every man." 
Proclaim Him the only and all sufficient Saviour ! Count- 
less multitudes in all ages have been trying one expedient 
after another, to roll back the overwhelming tide of evil, 
to throw off the deadly incubus of sin, to extinguish the 
hell-fire of a guilty conscience, to force the bolts of the 
dire poison of the soul, and free themselves from the 
shackles of satanic servitude, but have tried in vain. Let 
them know that Christ is the God-appointed Saviour, and 
invested with all power in heaven and earth, is able to 
save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. 
He who of old parted the sea and divided the Jordan, 
can avert and control the mightiest floods of moral evil, 



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and command the waves of Heaven's anger that they 
turn not to drown the helpless soul of humanity. From 
the wounded side of Jesus flows the river of the water of 
life, which alone can quench the flames of guilt in the 
soul, cleanse from the impurity of sin, and make our earth 
once more an Eden for life and beauty. Let but the cry 
of a penitent sinner, uttered in faith, reach His ear, and 
there is not a moral dungeon which He cannot force, nor 
a chain which He cannot break. He can comfort and 
aid, guide and guard His people all along their path 
through life, and He will be with and save them in death. 
Having abolished death, and brought life and immortality 
to light, He hath issued the proclamation, "I am the 
resurrection and the life." He will convey the disem- 
bodied spirits of all who die in Him to His Father's house, 
where they shall see His glory and share His heaven. In 
due time he will wake their guarded dust from the slum- 
ber of mortality, and having clothed it with immortal life 
and beauty, make each glowing body the shrine of a glori- 
fied spirit, and so shall they " ever be with the Lord." 

4. Christ ?nust be preached as the Judge of the quick and 
the dead. 

The various dispensations of the divine government 
under which men have been placed have all been proba- 
tionary. That under which we are privileged to live is 
the last of such dispensations. To it is destined to suc- 
ceed the age of retribution. When the Gospel shall have 
been preached in all the world as a witness unto all na- 
tions, then shall the end come. All the ages of human 
history, prior to that eventful crisis, will have served as 
the seed-time, and summer of the moral development of 
our race. 



Preaching Christ. 



383 



" The harvest is the end of the world." Over all these 
ages, with the generations of men whose lives they shall 
have measured, the mediatorial sway of Christ as " the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," shall have 
extended. In the end of the world, He shall deliver up 
this mediatorial Kingdom to God even the Father — and 
robing Himself with judicial majesty, descend in the 
clouds of heaven to judge the entire race of mankind. 
Then shall be heard the voice of the Archangel and the 
trump of God, quickening the dead, transforming the 
living, and summoning all before the flaming tribunal. 
" Then the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Thus signal- 
ized shall dawn that day for which all other days were 
made. Time shall be no longer. The reign of eternity 
shall begin. Clothed with power and great glory, Christ 
shall be seated upon the throne of His glory. Before 
Him shall be gathered all nations. In one vast assembly 
all the kindreds, tribes and tongues and people shall 
mingle. Idolators and Turks, Jews and Mahommedans, 
Christians and Infidels shall compose one promiscuous 
concourse. The wise man and the fool, the learned 
and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, the bond and 
the free, the king and his subject, the slave and his 
master, the husband, the wife, the parent and the child, 
the pastor and the people, the young and the old, the 
saint and the sinner, mankind and devils, shall all be 
marshalled there. You will be there, I shall be there, we 
shall each be recognised by the Judge, and every one 
answer for himself. The judgment shall be set, and the 
books opened. 

In recognition of His services as the Mediatorial King 



384 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

under whose government the world of the redeemed has 
been placed, the Lord Jesus Christ is delegated by the 
everlasting Father to execute the duties of the supremely 
momentous office of Judge on this august occasion. As 
God-man He will be peculiarly qualified for this high po- 
sition. What attributes other than those which pertain 
to Deity alone would be adequate for the business of this 
solemn assize ? On the other hand, how it will assure the 
confidence, and enhance the joys of the saints to be judged 
by Him to whom they owe all their preparation for this 
tremendous crisis : and how infinitely it will aggravate the 
guilt, and justify the punishment of the wicked, that He 
who shall condemn them will be none other than He who 
died to deliver them from the wrath to come. 

a Behold," he saith, " I come quickly." " Be ye there- 
fore ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son 
of Man cometh." 

In our text we have indicated to us, 

II. The mode of the Christian ministry. 

1 . " Warning every man. " 

This language imports danger. The apostles warned 
men because they believed them to be in danger. So 
vividly was this peril seen by those holy men, that it 
wrought upon their sensibilities and constrained them 

" To seek the wandering souls of men 
With cries, entreaties, tears to save — 
To snatch them from the gaping grave. " 

Addressing the elders at Ephesus, Saint Paul said : 
4< Remember that by the space of three years I ceased not 
to warn every one night and day with tears !" 

H But knowing the terror of the Lord ? we persuade 



Preaching Christ. 



385 



men," he writes to the Corinthians. They believed and 
taught that " the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking 
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not 
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be 
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence 
of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." They 
thus warned men of the wrath to come, and exhorted 
them to flee for refuge to Christ. Not with unfeeling 
spirit and revolting harshness of expression ; but with 
unaffected tears did they declare the alarming truth to 
every man irrespective of country, class, or creed. They 
knew that every man was in danger, and believed that 
every man who should take warning might deliver his 
soul. 

How men can read the discourses of Christ and the 
writings of the apostles ; and, if they believe in the truth 
of the Bible, not believe in the existence of a personal 
devil, and a material hell, I cannot understand. But 
such is the case — -the theological wiseacres of the nine- 
teenth century have ruled that there is neither the one 
nor the other. Christ and His apostles warned men 
against the devil, and against the torments of hell. We 
presume they at least knew as much concerning this sub- 
ject as Tom Paine, Theodore Parker, Renan, or any 
other of the entire school of Freethinkers. 

Unless we are better advised than by such impious ca- 
villers, we shall feel bound to warn our fellows to be sober 
and vigilant, because their " adversary the devil goeth 
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.'' 
Still must we echo the warnings of Christ in the ears of 
the Pharisees and evil doers of modern times ; " Ye ser« 
V 



386 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



pents ! Ye generation of vipers ! how can ye escape the 
damnation of hell ? " and affirm with Him that, if they 
repent not they shall perish — they shall die in their sins, 
and go away into everlasting punishment. It is at the 
peril of our own souls that we fail to bear this testimony, 
seeing that the Divine Master holds us responsible for the 
results of our unfaithfulness. To us He speaks, as well 
as to Ezekiel, saying, "O son of man, I have made thee a 
watchman unto the house of Israel ; therefore thou shalt 
hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from 
me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou 
shalt surely die : if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked 
from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; 
but his blood will I require at thine hand." 

The law of Moses had its frowning Sinai, capped with 
thunder clouds shooting forth their bolts of fire, symboli- 
cal of the terrible majesty of the Lawgiver, and suggest- 
ive of His power to punish the trifler and the rebel ; but 
no threatenings of condemnation and wrath can compare 
with those written in the redemptive blood of Calvary. 
" He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, under 
two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, 
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden 
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the cove- 
nant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing ; and 
hath done despite to the spirit of grace ? " Not only are 
sinners exposed to the vengeance of eternal fire, but their 
danger is heightened by their gross insensibility to the 
awful fact. Drugged with the narcotics of infidelity, or 
stupified by the gluttonous indulgence of sensual appe- 
tites, they sleep a deadly sleep, and need to be aroused 
by the peals of terror and alarm hung out from the belfry 
of the Christian Pulpit 



Preaching Christ. 



387 



2. " Teaching every man' 1 

The chief function of the ministerial office is to teach 
men the way of salvation. On this subject mankind are 
deplorably ignorant. They must needs have " line upon 
line and precept upon precept/' The teaching of the 
Christian minister is not speculative but declaratory. His 
business is not to deal in the conjectural and abstruse, 
but with the changeless realities, the eternal truths — the 
immutable and clearly defined principles of divine reve- 
lation. His utterances are authoritative only so far as 
they consist with the only Text Book on the science of 
salvation — the Holy Bible. 

" The author God Himself, 
The subject God and man, salvation, life, 
And death — eternal life, eternal death. 
Dread words whose meaning has no end, no bounds. 
Heaven's will, Heaven's code of laws entire 
To man this Book contains ; defines the bounds 
To vice and virtue, and of life and death," 

" The truth as it is in Jesus," is the staple of the Chris- 
tian teacher. That truth embodies the law which deter- 
mines the nature and defines the limits of truth and false- 
hood, right and wrong, vice and virtue, good and evil 
That truth reveals the only way by which the spiritually 
dead may be quickened, the guilty pardoned, the vile 
cleansed. The sufficiency of Christ to satisfy the wants 
and fill up the entire mental and moral capacity of every 
human soul in which He dwells, constitutes the riches of 
the glory of this mystery, " which is Christ in you the 
hope of glory/ 

With a tone of authority, inspired by the conviction of 
the absolute truth of his message, and of his divine call 



388 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

to proclaim it, the true minister will fearlessly appeal to 
every man's conscience. His is the noble dogmatism 
which will ever characterize the teacher who communi- 
cates truths in which he thoroughly believes. Nor will 
such a ministry lack the power to stimulate the intellect, 
cultivate the fancy, and answer the demands of man's 
emotional nature. The Cross of Christ is the luminous 
centre of the triple universe of morals, mind, and matter, 
and therefore, Creation and Providence, history and 
science, philosophy and literature. Poetry and art, hea- 
ven, earth and hell, may be legitimately ransacked for 
imagery to illustrate and enforce its mighty interests and 
far-reaching claims. 
3. " With all wisdom." 

The divine plan of salvation revealed in the Gospel 
contains in itself all the treasures of wisdom and know- 
ledge. The first teachers of this sublime mystery exhi- 
bited a great deal of practical wisdom in the fulfilment 
of their responsible work. Contemplating their mission 
in its physical and moral magnitude, they were con- 
strained to inquire, " Who is sufficient for these things ? ,? 
Old faiths and ancient philosophies had to be assailed and 
overcome* By the prejudices of unreasonable men, the 
cruel desertion of false brethren, and various other forms 
of opposition, did Satan strive to hinder them. Ofttimes 
had they occasion to recall the words of the Master, " Be 
ye wise as serpents* harmless as doves." Fearful lest 
their mission should fail of success through any indiscre- 
tion or mismanagement on their part> they were wont tq 
cast themselves upon the sympathy of the Church, ear- 
nestly desiring that prayer might be made in their behalf, 
" that the word of the Lord might have free course, and 



Preaching Christ. 



389 



be glorified." Nor was divine aid sought in vain. God 
gave unto them " the spirit of power and love, and of a 
sound mind." So far as was consistent with loyalty to 
Christ and His truth, they were made all things to all 
men, that they might by all means save some. Did their 
zeal glow with unabated ardour ? It was always according 
to knowledge. " Giving no offence in anything that the 
ministry be not blamed." Contending earnestly for " the 
faith once delivered to the saints." So fought they, not 
as those who (missing their antagonist) beat the air ; 
every blow which these skilful champions delivered took 
effect. Guided by the wisdom which is profitable to di- 
rect, they did not rashly rush into danger, neither did they 
cast their pearls before swine. That modesty which is ever 
the distinguishing mark and crowning glory of true great- 
ness, either of the intellect or the heart, forbade vain con- 
fidence in their own qualities and attainments, while 
their discourse and demeanour were eminently character- 
ized "by the meekness of wisdom." They saw men 
everywhere, under the woful infatuation of error and 
evil, rushing on to the dismal shades of eternal death ; and 
feeling themselves entrusted of God with the only means 
of their salvation, they studied, and sought, and prayed 
for the best way of discharging their solemn obligation. 
All their resources of genius and experience were placed 
under contribution in this responsible service. They were 
wide awake, and closely observant of men and things ; 
and, while as the means of their own salvation, and that of 
a world perishing in sin, they were " determined to know 
nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified," in order 
that all men might be brought to this mighty Saviour, they 
would know everything and employ every circumstance 
likely to afford them any aid, 



39° The Canadian Methodist Pulpit, 



Next to the spiritual qualifications of the Christian 
minister for the present day, the question of educational 
training for the sacred office demands the enlightened con- 
sideration and liberal support of the religious public. The 
age is rife with change. Old landmarks in morals, philo- 
sophy and religion are sought to be removed. They, who 
are expected to stand for the defence of the God-honored 
Gospel of our fathers, must needs be " able ministers/' so 
fully equipped as to be competent to meet the enemies of 
the faith wherever they may be entrenched, whether it may 
be in the department of historic and classic lore, or in 
the heights, or depths of physical, mental, or moral science, 
and in every place triumphantly plant the glorious banner 
of bible truth. 

We shall now pass on to observe. 

III. The Motive of the Christian Ministry. 

This is stated in these words, viz., "that we may pre- 
sent every man perfect in Christ Jesus." From this we 
learn two facts. 

i. The apostles desired the perfection of their hearers. 

The religion of Jesus Christ is the only true elevator of 
sin-degraded humanity. For ages mankind have groaned 
by reason of the bondage imposed upon them by the des- 
potic power of sin. Ever and anon they have shouted 
the praises, and urged the claims of some new-found 
Moses, who was to bring them out of Egypt. Now it has 
been one creed, then another — now this form of govern- 
ment, then that. " Civilize ! " has shouted one party — 
" Educate ! " has cried another. Meanwhile the world's 
condition under their treatment has exhibited no material 
improvement. And thus it must ever have continued, 
hadjiot Christianity been divinely instituted. The lofty 



Preaching Christ. 



39i 



type of character to which it proposes to elevate its sub- 
jects, is " in Christ Jesus." Under its transforming and 
soul-expanding power, " men are to come to a perfect 
man — unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ." Through faith in Christ they are, by the Divine 
Spirit, to be raised into newness of life, and being thereby 
nourished and strengthened with all might in the inner 
man, grow up into Him in all things. Sin has occasioned 
all the physical, intellectual and moral degeneration of 
our race, but Christ is the Saviour from sin. He teaches 
how men may escape from the grasp of those vices, and 
errors and superstitions, which are incompatible with a 
perfect manhood — vices which destroy the body — errors 
which enfeeble the mind, and superstitions which debase 
and disappoint the soul. How intolerant is the teaching 
of the Gospel of all abuse of our corporeal powers ! How 
high the dignity with which it invests the human body, 
when it asks, " What? know ye not, that your body is the 
temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you ? ,? The vir- 
tues it enjoins, whenever practised, are designed and 
suited to promote individual and social health and happi- 
ness, wealth and honour. The sublime verities it reveals, 
and the wide fields for thought and research which it sug- 
gestively opens, will afford the means of intellectual growth 
and moral improvement through the interminable here- 
after of our being. Under its auspices the world must 
advance to the universal enjoyment of the highest civili- 
zation. Learning, science, art and commerce shed their 
manifold blessings upon all nations dwelling within the 
sphere of its benign influence. 

The highest plane of perfection, however, to which it 
lifts men in this life — is not reached until they realize that 



392 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



exalted fellowship with God of which St. John writes. 
" If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ 
His Son cleanseth us from all sin." For this same spirit- 
ual completeness, St. Paul prays on behalf of Hebrew 
Christians. " Now the God of peace, make you perfect 
in every good work to do His will, working in you that 
which is well pleasing in His sight." In a word, this Gos- 
pel proclaims an indwelling Christ, and an indwelling 
Christ means the extirpation of all indwelling sin. Nor 
is this a display of divine ability in which only a few are 
called to participate. The apostles believed it was open 
for all, and therefore they warned every man, and taught 
every man, that they might " present every man perfect in 
Christ Jesus." Surely the great God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ who is able to save unto the uttermost one 
member of the race — is able to save all ; and if He be no 
respector of persons (as we are assured He is not), then 
He must be as willing as He is able to lift every man up 
to the enjoyment of this infinite good. 

2. The apostles coveted the honour and happiness of 
presenting their hearers to Christ in the day of judgment, as 
the trophies of His power to save, and as the fruit of their 
ministry. 

These holy men seemed to live and move— to speak 
and act, in all their relations to the Church of Christ, as 
in the light of eternity, and in view of the solemn scrutiny 
of eternal judgment. They watched for souls, as those 
that must give account. Anticipating the period when 
Christ " shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be 
admired in all that believe," they toiled with unremitting 
diligence to win souls for Him that should swell the spoils 



Preaching Christ, 



393 



of His victory, and add jewels to His mediatorial crown. 
Nor were they dead to the holy ambition which is impa- 
tient of failure and defeat in the service of Christ. They 
deprecated the possibility that the disclosures of the last 
day should prove that in any instance they had run in 
vain, or laboured in vain. Rejoicing with a hallowed de- 
light over those whom they had instrumentally saved, 
they exhorted them as their "joy and crown" to stand 
fast in the Lord, saying, " For what is our hope, or joy or 
crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of 
our Lord Jesus Christ ? For ye are our glory and joy." 
As spiritual husbandmen, they went forth weeping, bear- 
ing precious seed ; sowing beside all waters, looking to- 
ward the harvest-time when they should come again with 
rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them. O my breth- 
ren ! next to the honour and happiness of being ourselves 
presented to Christ in that day as monuments of His 
power to save, will be the glory and joy of presenting 
others as the fruit of our Christian effort ! Contrasted 
with the high distinction attained by those who, having 
turned many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for 
ever and ever — the proudest coronets of earth and the 
noblest honours of statesmen and heroes shall sink into 
the shades of an eternal oblivion ! How solemnly start- 
ling the thought that we are speaking and hearing and 
acting every day for eternity, and the moral culture be- 
stowed by others upon us, or bestowed by us upon others, 
will prove either " the savour of life unto life, or of death 
unto death ! ; ' The day hastens which shall declare the 
result of all ! 

My dear brethren ! in prospect of that approaching re- 
view, allow me to ask, " Have you tested for yourselves 



394 77^ Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



the saving ability of the Christ whom we preach unto 
you?" Is Christ in you, your hope of glory? If so, are 
you seeking to be made perfect in every good work to do 
His will ? Stop not short of full salvation. Give all dili 
gence in your Master's service, that when He shall come 
to judge the race, ye may be found of Him in peace, with- 
out spot and blameless, and be presented " faultless be- 
fore the throne of His glory with exceeding joy." 

Do I address any who are yet unsaved ? Once more 
I warn you to flee unto Christ. As the Saviour of sinners. 
He now invites you to come to Him for pardon, purity, 
rest and heaven. O do not longer slight His wooing love ! 
No longer despise His beseeching grace ! By His peerless 
divinity, and perfect humanity, His spotless life and all- 
atoning death — by His resurrection from the dead, and 
present intercession for you in heaven — and by His com- 
ing again to judge mankind — I appeal to you that you 
embrace His offered salvation, and thus prepare for an 
honourable presentation in that day, when He shall see 
in the millions of His redeemed, regenerate, and glorified 
saints — the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. 

My dear brethren, there are millions of mankind to 
whom Christ has never yet been preached ! For them as 
well as for us, He bore the Cross ! To those of us who 
have accepted Him as our Saviour, He is saying, " Go ye 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every crea- 
ture ! " 

Though there may be but few of our number to whom 
it may be given to carry this message to those who with- 
out it must perish, let us rejoice that it is the privilege of 
all to go by their representatives, in the person of those 
self-denying and devoted servants of Christ, the Christian 



Preaching Christ. 



395 



missionaries fof the day, and tell them " the old, old 
story, of Jesus and His love.'' More intimately and prac- 
tically identifying ourselves with the cause of Christian 
Missions, in sympathy, prayer, and consecration of time 
and property — let all our co-operation take its character 
from the just and inspiring sentiment, " Christ for the 
world, and the world for Christ." Then shall we accele- 
rate the arrival of that golden age of Christian triumph, 
when Christ " shall have dominion from sea to sea, and 
from the rivers unto the ends of the earth." 



SOME DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OP 
WESLEYAN THEOLOGY. 



AN ADDRESS 

Delivered in the Centenary Church, Hamilton, on the 
Evening of Friday, J^une $th, 1874. 

On the occasion of the reception of twenty-six young men into the 
Ministry of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada. * 

By REV. A. SUTHERLAND. 

FTER a brief reference to the emotions ex- 
cited by the remembrance of his own recep- 
tion into full connection with the Conference, 
just fifteen years before, the speaker said : — 
It is not surprising that deep emotion should 
fill our hearts to-night. It would be strange 
if it were otherwise. Such a scene and such 
an occasion might well stir a tide of holy feeling in the 
coldest heart. Memory and hope blend their hues in the 
bow of peace that now spans the heavens above us. Gra- 
titude for the past, joy in the present, and hope for the 
future, all conspire to fill the soul with delightful emotion. 

* The address is given here as prepared; some graphs were 
omitted in the delivery from want of time, 




Some Distinctive Features of Wesley an Theology. 397 

We think of the time, not far past, when our whole Con- 
ference did not exceed the number of men we now receive 
into full connection, and we say, "What hath God 
wrought ? " We recall the heroic age of Methodism, 
when men of whom the world was not worthy carried her 
banners, and vindicated her theology against a world in 
arms. We think of the standard-bearers who have fallen, 
and memory lingers with loving reverence on the names 
of James Evans, that man of seraphic fervour and saintly 
life, whose name, to this day, is "as ointment poured 
forth " among the red men of the North-West ; and Wil- 
liam Case, the man of executive power and of apostolic 
zeal, whose Christ-like sympathies reached out to those 
for whose souls, at that day, no man cared ; and Joseph 
Stinson, the wise administrator and genial friend, whose 
incessant labours in the presidency carried him away from 
us all too soon ; and Henry Wilkinson, whose burning 
soul left behind him, wherever he went, a trail of revival 
fire, and whose mighty pulpit appeals are still a tradition 
all over this land. And as we recall the names of those 
devoted men, we rejoice to believe that they stand to-night 
amongst the " cloud of witnesses," watching, with ever- 
deepening interest, the great conflict of the ages, and re- 
joicing together as each new battalion marches to the front. 

But while our hearts swell with gratitude at the memory 
of those golden days, the question springs instinctively to 
the lip, "Will they continue? Will the days to come be 
as glorious as the days that are past ? The fathers, where 
are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?" 
Yes, thank God, they do ! They live again in the memory 
of their heroic deeds, and that memory is an inspiration 
yet ; they live in the influence of their saintly lives : the 



398 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



" box of very precious ointment," shattered in the strife, 
spreads its fragrance yet wider through the world ; best of 
all, they live again in the " sons of the prophets/' who at 
the call of the Spirit and the Church fill up from year to 
year the ranks of the living witnesses. " Instead of the 
fathers" are "the children, " "children that will not lie," 
children who will not be recreant to their high trust, chil- 
dren who will add yet brighter lustre to the honoured 
name they bear. Those whom we propose to set apart 
at this time to the work, have already made good proof 
of their ministry. May it be said of each, as he goes forth 
in the strength of the Lord, " The Spirit of Elijah doth 
rest on Elisha." 

The preceding speaker hath shown us what a minister 
ought to be — has given, in fact, a sketch of the ideal 
Christian minister. I wish now to speak of the peculiar 
advantages afforded by the Methodist Church to those 
who aspire after this lofty ideal, and desire to make full 
proof of their ministry; 

In the first place, there are the encouragements and faci- 
lities which it affords for the most liberal mental culture. I 
make this remark now, because the attitude of Methodism, 
in this respect, has been grossly misunderstood. We have 
been represented as indifferent, if not antagonistic, to 
thorough mental culture. Such a representation is most 
unjust. Education has no truer friend than the Methodist 
Church. In the work of higher education she was the 
pioneer in this Dominion, and for many years she has 
maintained against powerful opposition, and amid many 
discouragements, a University which, as regards the tho- 
roughness of the training it affords, is not surpassed by any 
University on this continent. And if additional evidence 



Some Distinctive Features of Wesley an Theology, 399 

of the interest which the Methodist Church takes in edu- 
cation were wanted, we have it in the fact that she has 
given to Canada the man who planned and established, 
and has lately perfected, a national system of education 
unsurpassed, if indeed it is equalled, by any other system 
in the world. Then in regard to the training of the minis- 
try ; it is true that, until recently, Methodism has not had, 
in this country, regular established schools of theology ; 
but it must not be inferred that, therefore, this highly im- 
portant matter has been neglected. From the first her 
method has been to train young men not for the ministry, 
but in it ; and her curriculum for probationers, extending 
over a period of four years, is one which even a divinity 
school need not blush to own. Every candidate who seeks 
admission to our ministry, may count upon abundant op- 
portunities for all the culture he desires. 

These young brethren are entering the ministry of a 
church that was not establiehed i?i antagonism to any pre- 
viously existing religious body. There are few churches of 
which this can be affirmed. The Lutheran Church was 
organized in antagonism to Popery, and the same is true 
of the Calvinistic Churches of France and Switzerland, 
and of the Reformed Church of England ; Presbyterianism 
was organized in antagonism to both Popery and prelacy ; 
Independency in antagonism to prelacy, Presbyterianism 
and a State Church. Of Methodism — (I had almost said 
of Methodism alone) — -it can be said that it was organized 
in antagonism to nothing but sin. From the very first its 
distinguishing motto has been, " The friend of all — the 
enemy of none." Its mission has not been so much to 
protest against error as to witness for the truth. A few 
moments' reflection will show what a powerful advantage 



4oo The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



this must give in evangelistic work. We have no quarrel 
with other churches as such ; our aim and mission is to 
spread scriptural holiness, and to bring lost sinners to 
God. We fight against nothing but sin. On the other 
hand, a church whose main business is to protest against 
error, will be very likely, sooner or later, to fall into error 
itself. The reason is this : a revolt from error does not 
necessarily lead towards the truth— it may only lead into 
some opposite extreme, or even into some form of error 
still worse. Thus not a few, like the father of John Stuart 
Mill, in their recoil from the more repulsive dogmas of 
Augustianism, have landed in infidelity and atheism ; 
while others, starting from the same point, and impelled 
by the same revulsion of feeling, have leaped at a bound 
from particular election to universal salvation. In the 
present day we have an instance of another kind. Not 
many years ago a number of men joined themselves 
together in Christian fellowship on the principle that their 
chief business was to witness against error, especially 
against sects and creeds. They have ended by adopting 
the narrowest creed in Christendom, and establishing the 
most sectarian sect of all. I do not say that I think it 
wrong to protest against error. I only wish to point out 
that a church which makes that its chief business is in 
danger of falling back to the very point from which it 
started. We need not be surprised at this. In protest- 
ing against error we feel the force of repulsion ; in wit- 
nessing for the truth we feel the force of attraction, and 
the force of attraction, in the moral sphere, is the mightier 
of the two. The church which only protests against error 
is like the man who walks backward from a repulsive ob- 
ject ; he may unexpectedly fall into a pit. The church 



Some Distinctive Features of Wesley an Theology. 40 1 

which bears witness for the truth is like a man who walks 
with steady footsteps towards the " light which shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day." Besides this, the 
force of repulsion is soon expended ; a reaction sets in, 
and it sometimes happens in this, as in other things, that 
the reaction is equal to the original impulse. A painful 
illustration of this we see in the present day, in the case 
of those who, as some one has wittily remarked — 

" Nightly pitch their moving tent 
A day's march nearer Rome I " 

Methodism, I repeat, did not originate in a spirit of 
antagonism to the peculiarities or the errors of existing 
churches : it grew out of that overmastering desire which 
God implanted in the hearts of a few " to flee from the 
wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins." When 
these men had found rest and safety for their own souls, 
their deepest sympathies were stirred by the spiritual des- 
titution everywhere apparent. Immediately they confer- 
red not with flesh and blood ; but, constrained by the love 
of Christ, they went out into the highways and hedges to 
compel men to come in to the gospel feast. Out of that 
divine impulse grew the Methodist Church ; and hence 
its theology is not a traditional formula, blindly held, nor 
yet a combative creed, bristling all over with defiant chal- 
lenges to other systems : it is a simple statement of truths 
discovered in the patient study of the Scriptures, and tested 
in the crucible of experience. 

These young men are called to preach a theology clearly 
defined and heartily believed. A very curious circumstance 
in the ecclesiastical history of the last century is the 
uniformity with which other churches have ignored the 
l 



402 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



existence of a clearly defined Methodist theology. The 
most cursory reader of church history knows that for more 
than a century the Methodist Church has stood forth the 
acknowledged champion of the Arminian system, and yet 
nothing is more common than to hear the Methodist 
ministry spoken of as a ministry without education and 
without a theology. One might have expected that the 
fierce polemical encounters of bygone days would have 
dispelled this delusion ; but even when the Calvinistic 
Goliath reeled and staggered under the herculean blows 
of the Arminian David, it affected to regard the latter as a 
crude heresy, rather than a clearly defined system. This 
curious misconception is not altogether a thing of the 
past. In an article published just one year ago in an 
American Review, by a leading American divine, I find 
such statements as these : " The Methodist Church is 
rapidly becoming a theological power in the land, but its 
distinctive work, until of late, has been its practical work 

of Christian aggression Having performed these 

labours." it has " lately entered upon others, organizing 
colleges and theological schools. " ..... Its "time has 
come to issue commentaries, to produce theological tomes, 
to compact into printed forms" its "system of belief, and 
logically to show its relations to, and its differences from, 
the theologies of other churches." Nothing could be 
wider of the mark than such statements. From the very 
first Methodism has had its theology, compact, sym- 
metrical, and clearly defined. The men who, in the 
providence of God, led the movement, were men of wide 
culture, who had devoted long years to the patient study 
of the best of all theologies— the sacred Scriptures. It 
was this training that enables them, in all their teachings 



Some Distinctive Features of Wesleyan Theology. 403 

to give forth a certain sound. And I hesitate not to aver 
that the best read men of their age, especially in biblical 
and practical theology, were the Methodist preachers of a 
hundred years ago. It could hardly be otherwise ; for 
while divinity students in colleges were pondering theories 
of spiritual warfare, the Methodist itinerants were testing 
their doctrines in the tented field, amid embattled foes. 
The result was a clearness of apprehension and a distinct- 
ness of definition not likely to be attained by those who 
stood aloof from the strife. Let it not be thought, how- 
ever, that the theology of Methodism has been gradually 
accumulating through the years. 

If there has been an increase it has not been by accre- 
tion from without, but by the healthful development of a 
life within. Methodism did not go forth to the conflict 
blindly groping her way, and picking up her armour piece by 
piece : she sprang forth like Minerva from the head of 
Jupiter, fully armed for the fight. Methodism, I repeat, has 
now, and always has had, a theology ; not fragmentary, but 
complete ; not loosely compiled, but " firmly compacted 
by that which every joint supplieth ; " not dimly perceived, 
but clearly apprehended ; not carelessly held, but firmly 
grasped. Neither does she walk to day in an armour that 
has not been proved. It has been brought to the crucial 
test of a hundred battle fields, and has come forth as ar- 
mour of proof. The best evidence of this is the fact that 
Methodism still holds every foot of territory she has con- 
quered, and marches on, stronger than ever, to claim the 
world for Christ. And this theology, so clearly defined 
and apprehended, we most heartily and unwaveringly be- 
lieve, The tendency of the age is towards utter laxity of 
opinion in regard to religious truth. It is quite possible 



404 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

to have a creed without faith — a theology without belief. 
Thus we have sometimes the sad spectacle of creeds and 
confessions and church assemblies holding, with a strangely 
tenacious clasp, the dead body of a theology in which men 
have no longer a living faith. Most heartily do I sympa- 
thize with a remark attributed to the Rev. Charles Spur- 
geon, who, referring to this laxity of belief said, " Whether 
it be Calvinism or Arminianism, in God's name let us 
believe something" 

Again, these young brethren are to preach a theology 
the definitions of which are in perfect harmony with Bible 
statements. This may sound like an idle boast, but a little 
examination will show its entire correctness. Some of the 
prominent theologies of the day can be maintained only 
by explaining away vast numbers of Scripture texts. Thus 
for example, Augustinianism has to explain away all those 
passages — and their name is legion — which assert or im- 
ply universal redemption ; Unitarianism must explain 
away every passage which sets forth the deity of Jesus 
Christ ; and Universalism must get rid, by an ingenious 
perversion of the principles of interpretation, of those 
texts which teach future and eternal punishment. On the 
other hand I know of no text, bearing upon matters of 
doctrine, which a Wesleyan theologian cannot accept, in 
its legitimate connection, just as it stands, or to the test 
of which he would hesitate to bring his doctrinal defini- 
tions. I say " legitimate connection," because by isolat- 
ing a text you can make it teach almost anything. And 
should there be a text the meaning of which, even in its 
proper connection, seems doubtful, then we make our ap- 
peal "to the law and to the testimony," and claim the 
right of interpreting Scripture by Scripture, It is no sjnall 



Some Distinctive Features of Wesley an Theology. 405 

boon to have a theology the definitions of which are inter- 
changeable with Bible statements. 

Take, for example, the doctrine of Repentance. I do 
not mean to say that repentance, as an element in our 
creed, is peculiar to Wesleyan theology ; but I do mean 
that, as regards a clear apprehension of the doctrine, and 
its relative position in the system, there are distinctive 
peculiarities. In some theologies repentance is merely a 
change of mind — a wishing that something were undone 
that has been done. In others it is merely a refor- 
mation of manners — a turning from certain sins — because 
of the hurt they have done, or are likely to do, as a 
malefactor repents of his crime because it brings him 
to punishment. The Wesleyan theology has always 
held and contended for what is called the evan- 
gelical view, and its definition is so clear and simple that 
even a child may understand it. " Repentance is a godly 
sorrow wrought in the heart of a sinful person by the 
Word and Spirit of God, whereby, from a sense of his sin 
as offensive to God, and defiling and endangering to his 
own soul, and from an apprehension of the mercy of God 
in Christ, he, with grief and hatred of all his known sins, 
turns from them to God as his Saviour and Lord." And 
then as to the relative place of the experience represented 
by the doctrine in order of time : the Augustinian the- 
ology represents it as a habit of mind resulting from con- 
version, and, of course, subsequent to justifying faith ; — 
in other words, that a man does not repent in order to 
justification, but because he is justified. The Wesleyan 
theology represents it as a work of the Holy Spirit ante- 
cedent to conversion, and essential to it ; a view which 
not only harmonizes with the statements of Scripture, but 
accords with the facts of human experience. 



406 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

Take again j[ the distinct statement and testimony of 
Wesleyan theology concerning the Witness of the Spirit. 
In some systems we read of " Hope/' and the " Assurance 
of Hope ; " sometimes it is called the " Assurance of 
Faith/' but in the definitions which have come under my 
notice, there is great confusion of thought and indistinct- 
ness of statement, the assurance of faith, or that evidence 
which a strong faith supplies, being confounded with the 
witness of the Spirit. In contrast with this ambiguity of ex- 
pression is the Wesleyan definition of the doctrine, which 
declares it to be " an inward impression on the soul, 
whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly 
witnesses with my spirit that I am a child of God ; that 
Jesus Christ hath loved me, and given Himself for me ; 
that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am recon- 
ciled to God." 

Again, look at its testimony concerning the doctrine 
and experience of entire Sanctification or perfect love. 
The definition given to the Calvinistic standards is that 
Sanctification is " the work of God's free grace, whereby 
we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, 
and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to 
live unto righteousness." This agrees very closely with 
the Wesleyan definition of Regeneration, which describes 
it as " that great change which God works in the soul, 
when he raises it from the death of sin to the life of right- 
eousness ; " or, " the change wrought in the whole soul by 
the Almighty, when it is created anew in Christ Jesus, 
when it is renewed after the image of God, in righteous- 
ness and true holiness." It seems, therefore, that what 
Calvinistic divines regard as Sanctification, Wesleyan the- 
ologies regard as Regeneration ; in which, however, Sane- 



Some Distinctive Features of Wesley an Theology. 407 

tification is begun. But we teach that there is a state de- 
scribed in Scripture which lies beyond the experience of 
Regeneration, and we define it to be " the state of being 
entirely cleansed from sin, so as to love God with all our 
heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, and our neighbour 
as ourselves." This is the truth to which, above all others, 
God has called us to bear testimony. He raised us up to 
spread Scriptural holiness ; and our success in evangel- 
istic work has always been measured by our fidelity in 
proclaiming a full salvation. Hitherto the watchmen 
have given, on this point, no uncertain sound. In this 
may it be semper eadem. 

The relative order of the doctrines composing a system 
is a matter of considerable importance. If we try to 
change or reverse any process of God in nature, serious 
evils will result, and the same is true when we change or 
reverse God's order in redemption. In the Calvinistic 
system the relative order seems to be conversion, faith, 
repentance ; an order which does not seem to us to har- 
monize with the statements of Scripture, and which we 
know does not accord with the facts of experience. In 
the Wesleyan system, and in perfect harmony with its doc- 
trine of the Atonement, the relative order is, repentance 
—(including conviction) — faith, justification, regeneration. 
This arrangement, we believe, harmonizes both with Scrip- 
ture and experience. We know, as matter of fact, that no 
man will seek the Saviour who is not convinced of sin ; 
" they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are 
sick." It is equally plain that no man can exercise justify- 
ing faith in Christ, while he is yet impenitent, much less 
will God pardon an impenitent soul. We hold, therefore, 
that repentance, which is a grace of the Spirit, comes first 



408 The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 

in order of time ; that it is the penitent soul alone who is 
enabled to believe in Jesus ; that a man is justified be- 
cause he believes in Jesus, — not he believes because he 
is justified ; and that regeneration, in order of thought, 
follows justification. 

Now, let it be observed that " all the doctrinal affirma- 
tions of Wesleyan theology are direct spiritual forces in the 
conversion of souls and their upbuilding in holiness. It is 
said of the celebrated Dr. Nettleton that he used to post- 
pone his doctrinal sermons till the end of a revival. No 
Methodist preacher needs do this. Every true Methodist 
sermon is the preaching of a Methodist doctrine, and tells 
directly on the conversion of sinners and the perfecting 
of saints. Thus the doctrine of free will (disburdened of 
necessity or predestination) flings all the responsibility of 
sin on the sinner ; the doctrine of unlimited atonement 
(disburdened of partial reprobation) opens free salvation 
for all ; the doctrine of gracious ability encourages and 
brings the sinner to faith ; the doctrine of the witness of 
the Spirit leads the convert to communion with God ; the 
doctrine of possible apostacy warns him to maintain the 
constant assurance of a present salvation ; while the 
doctrine of entire sanctification inspires him to whole 
souled effort for the attainment of every height of holiness." 
— Dr. Whedon. And because these doctrines harmonize 
with Scripture and experience, and because they are direct 
spiritual forces in the conversion and sanctification of men, 
therefore do they meet the deepest needs of the human 
soul. Those needs are absolute. To us they are not 
matters of opinion — they are profound realities ; it is this 
which, in our view, invests the doctrines of the gospel 
with such supreme importance. 



Some Distinctive features of Wesleyan Theology. 409 

Lastly, in the theological system of Methodism there is 
perfect unity. There is no .clashing — no conflict. Here 
is no reprobation clashing with redemption • no secret de- 
cree to conflict with the universal offer of salvation ; no 
collision of foreordination with free agency and responsi- 
bility ; no such view of sin as limits the power of grace, 
and renders the hope of deliverance a nullity. When 
candidly surveyed the doctrines of Methodism will be 
found not only in harmony with Scripture, but in harmony 
with one another ; each fitting into its appropriate place 
like jewels in a well constructed Mosaic, while upon the 
central jewel he who runs may read the inscription, " Ho- 
liness to the Lord." This unity and simplicity of doc- 
trine is felt throughout the whole of Methodism. Lord 
Chatham once said that " the English Church had a 
Popish liturgy, a Calvinistic creed, and an Arminian cler- 
gy. May it not be said that there are churches in the 
present day who have a Calvinistic creed, a semi-Calvin- 
istic ministry, and an Arminian laity ? Thank God there 
are no such discrepancies between Methodist theology 
and Methodist belief, but entire unity of creed and faith 
throughout the whole church. Among the most remark- 
able discoveries of modern science are those which centre 
in the unity of the physical universe. There are certain 
powers in nature to which we apply the generic term of 
Force. Thus heat is force, light is force, electricity is 
force, magnetism is force ; and the grandest discovery of 
the age is that these forces are mutually convertible — 
that they can pass into one another — or, in other words, 
that all force is the same force. Thus the doctrine of 
unity is rising with overpowering magnificence, bearing us 
on directly to the mind of God ; and leading us to identify 



4 id The Canadian Methodist Pulpit. 



force, in all its forms, with one omnipresent and all-per- 
vading Will. Again, in the unity of the physical world 
we observe a regularly ascending scale from lower to 
higher and still higher forms, and that all tend towards 
one point. There is a gradation in vegetable forms, some 
being but a brief step from the earthly substances on which 
they feed, while others approach so closely to the lower 
forms of animal life that it is not easy to tell just where 
the one ends and the other begins. Then we pass up- 
ward through graduated forms of animal life till we reach 
the crowning point in the exquisite structure of the hu- 
man frame. Still higher there are forces — as magnetism 
and electricity — so etherial, so subtile that we almost hesi- 
tate to class them with material things. We pass over 
another interval (how great or how little we cannot tell) 
and we reach the domain of Mind — Intelligence. It needs 
but another step, and we rise to the conception of an In- 
finite Mind, an Infinite Intelligence, and again find the 
centre of unity in God. Now, if there be this wondrous 
unity in the physical creation, and the centre of that unity 
be God, is it unreasonable to expect a similar unity in the 
doctrines of revelation, or to suppose that the keystone of 
that unity will be found in the doctrine that lifts us near- 
est to God? Every theology has its special doctrinal 
standpoint from which it surveys the whole system of cor- 
related truth, and this standpoint will go far to determine 
whether entire unity shall pervade the system. Thus, to 
borrow the thought of a late writer, Calvinism is a survey 
of Christian doctrine from the standpoint of Judaism ; 
Lutheranism is a survey of Christian doctrine from the 
standpoint of justification by faith ; Wesleyanism is a sur- 
vey of Christian doctrine from the standpoint of perfect 



Some Distinctive Features, of Wesley an Theology. 411 

love. It is this which gives such unity to the Wesleyan 
theology. This is the crowning doctrine as it is the crown- 
ing grace. This is the doctrine that lifts us nearest to 
God, " for love is the fulfilling of the law," and " the end 
of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart." 
When the doctrine of perfect love is clearly apprehended 
and experienced, we have reached the summit. There is 
nothing beyond, I had almost said there can be nothing 
beyond, but God and Heaven. 



IND 



EX. 



A. 

Abraham's Faith, 494. 
Adam and Eve, their posterity, 
227. 

Adversaries of the Gospel, 189. 

Ages the, brightest of, 3. 

Ambition, 20. 

Angels, fallen, 77. 

Ministering Spirits, 79 ; 
Studying Redemption, 99 ; 
Things which they desire to 
look into, 100 ; Good, their 
nature, 101 ; Numbers, 102 ; 
Position of, 102 ; Insignia of 
office, 103 ; Not marred by 
sin, 103 ; Their intellectual 
powers, 103 ; The place of 
their abode, 103 ; Objects of 
angelic desire, 105 ; Were 
in the Conference of Heaven 
when the plan of Redemp- 
tion was arranged, 106 ; 
Saw the part Jesus took, 
106 ; Saw Him crucified, 
107 ; Studying mercy, 114 ; 
Rejoicing over returning sin- 
ners, 115; Studying truth 
unfolded* 116 ; Christ's 
Resurrection, 117; Several 
Orders, 223 ; Their song, 
139. 

Antediluvians, 359, 
Apostles, 390, 



Desired the perfection of 
their hearers, 390 ; That 
they might present them to 
Christ at the Day of Judg- 
ment as trophies of His 
power, 392. 

Ark of the Covenant, 133. 

Arise, meaning of, 125, 

Ascension of Christ, 137 ; Fore- 
told, 137 ; Angels' Song 
at, 139 ; Blessing conse- 
quent on, 145 ; General, 
145 ; Special, 146. 

Atonement, 324 ; Expiatory, 
195 ; Not to be limited, 197. 

Attributes of God manifested in 
the History of the Jews, 213. 

B. 

Barnabas, his faith, 50. 

Believers' happiness, 131. 

Should rejoice in goodness, 
131 ; In seeing good done, 
130. 

Bible enlarges the range of hu- 
man knowledge,' 186 ; Op- 
ens with God and His crea- 
tion, 187. 

c. 

Charity, Christian, 353, 
Character, Christian, 40, 65. 



414 



Index. 



Christ, to know more perfectly, 
91. The power of His 
Resurrection, 92 ; Appre- 
hending Him, 93 ; Death 
of, ill; Seen after His Re- 
surrection, 112 ; His As- 
cension, 112 ; His absolute 
Deity, and perfect human- 
ity, 191 ; As our Mediator, 
193 ; His real presence, 
262 ; Came that we might 
have life, 276 ; The means 
by which He influences the 
life, 280 ; Promotes the 
healthy and prolonged exis- 
tence of the body, 280 ; 
Developes the highest capa- 
bility of the human intel- 
lect, 281 ; Is the source of 
spiritual life, 284 ; Develops 
our three-fold life, 286 ; Aids 
the philanthropist, 287 ; The 
patriot, 288 ; The pastor, 
288 ; He teaches the flock 
their indebtedness to the 
Good Shepherd, 289 ; The 
impenitent sinner what an 
ungrateful and ruinous thing 
it is to reject Christ, 290 ; 
His power, 356; Is the mis- 
sionary's strength, 356 ; The 
homage He was to receive, 
357 ; His power displayed in 
His work, 358 ; Christ risen 
the study of Angels, 117; 
His glory, 118 ; His univer- 
sal conquest, 119 ; His reign, 
140 ; His enemies, 140. 

Christ our Passover, 166 ; Our 
shelter from impending ruin, 
172; The propitiation for 
our sins, 173 ; The life, 
strength and support of the 
soul, 175 ; Our dependence 
upon Him, 1 77 ; Safety in, 
178 ; Must be received 
wholly, 1 79 ; Must be re- 
ceived in the spirit of peni^ 



tential self-renunciation, 180; 
In receiving Him sin must be 
put away, 18 1 ; We must 
obey Him, 184 ; Should be 
enthroned as the Supreme 
Authority in the sphere of 
Revelation, 190. 

Christ's power shown in the na- 
tions, 358 ; In what he has 
done for His cause, 360 ; In 
what He is doing now, 361 ; 
In preparing His instru- 
ments, 367 ; His spiritual 
power, 368 ; To forgive sins, 
369 ; We should pray for 
a display of, 370 ; Should 
contribute to spread, 370. 

Christ, what He is, 373 ; The 
theme of the Christian minis- 
try, 375 ; The Son of Man, 
378 ; The Saviour of the 
World, 380; The Judge of 
quick and dead, 382. 

Christ should be received ir^ all 
His offices, 33 ; In all His 
Divine influences, 33 ; Our 
need of these, 34 ; What 
they are capable of doing for 
us > 35* 

Christians, their state, 1 ; Their 
privileges, 3 ; Are some- 
times broken cisterns, 13 ; 
Those who are faithful, all 
things work together for 
good, 23 ; Trials, &c, 24. 

Christians, on earth and in hea- 
ven, 56. 

Christian ministers, their work, 
184 ; Qualification for, 185. 

Christian work, 357. 

Christian fellowship, 54. 

Christian perfection, 64. 

Christian ministry, mode of, 384. 

Christian Church, state of, 1. 

Church membership should be 
composed of rejoicing saints, 
129 ; Should be holy, 130 ; 
Shoulel be divinely consti* 



Index, 



415 



tuted, 200 ; Should show 
an united front, 200 ; Should 
possess a courageous spirit, 
200 ; Figurative representa- 
tion of, 215. 

Church order, 346 ; Church sys- 
tems ; 352. 

Church, Methodist, of Canada, 
397 ; Affording opportunities 
for the most liberal mental 
culture of its ministers, 398; 
Was not established in anta- 
gonism to other Christian 
bodies, 399 ; Her theology 
clearly defined, and heartily 
believed. 401 ; Her theo- 
logy in harmony with Bible 
statements, 404 ; Her doc- 
trinal statements are direct 
spiritual forces in the con- 
version of souls, 408 ; And 
in promoting holiness, 408 ; 
In that system there is per- 
fect unity, 409. 

Conversion, essence of, 38 ; A 
perfect change, 63. 

Colenso, 191. 

Consecration to God, 88. 

Constantine, the Great, 202. 

Cross of Christ, 388. 

Coveteousness, 19. 

Creation displaying the goodness 
of God, 6. 

D. 

Death "and judgemnt, 56 ; Time 
of death uncertain, 57 ; All 
men should live prepared 
for, 57. 

Dead, resurrection of, 93. 

Death of Christ, ill. 

Death vanquished, 144. 

Dedication of the temple, 123. 

Deist, English, 207. 

Deism, English, 208. 

Decision for God, 11. 

Divisions of the Church, 203 ; 



They limit the power of the 
Holy Ghost, 204. 
Duties, mutual, 45, 

E. 

Eden, man's home, 187. 
Eli, the priest, 134. 
Emotion, religious, 38; 
Employment, heavenly, 80, 

F. 

Faith, full of, 48 ; Abraham's, 
49 ; Paul's, 49 ; Barnabas, 
his, 50. 

Faith necessary to salvation, 61. 

Faith of the gospel, 189. 

Faith, Christian, 307. 

Faith, genuineness of, 309. 

Family of God, 227. 

Family, emblem of heaven, 229. 

Family of God on earth, 228 ; 
In heaven, 228 ; Has a 
common parentage, 228; God 
the Father of, 229 : Unity in, 
230 ; Diversity in, 232, 233. 
Dispersion in, 235; Embra- 
ces heaven and earth, 235. 

Felicity, perfect, 77. 

Fortune, lost, 228. 

G. 

Grace, glory begun, 82. 
Grace Divine, properties of, 90. 
Grace and goodness, 6. 
Gifts, spiritual, 42 ; Miraculous, 
42. 

God, nature of, 10 1. 

God dwelling in the believer's 
heart, 65. 

God incarnate, 321. 

God's love for His people, 305. 

God, His resting place, 124. 

God and His creation, 187 ; Re- 
vealed and not discovered, 

!8 7 , 



416 



Index. 



God, emblem of His power, 217. 

God unknown, 251, 252 ; Sun 
in nature, 253 ; In provi- 
dence, 254 ; In the person 
and work of Christ, 254. 

God, to know Him we must 
have new powers of percep- 
tion, 260. 

God, character of, 4 ; His Lord- 
ship over all worlds, 17. 

God, revelation of, 5 : Attributes 
of, 6. 

Gospel, power of, 319 ; Mystery 
of power, 321 ; Came with 
much assurance, 329. 

Gospel, superiority of, 58 ; What 
it is, 189 ; Its adversaries, 
189 ; For thou to whom the 
Apostles preached, 3. 

Gospel, first teachers of, 388 ; 
their character, 389. 

Good man, a, 30. 

Goodness, meaning of, 6. 

Glorying, 299. 

Glory of developed mercy, 113. 
Glory following the sufferings 
of Christ, 1 12. 

H. 

Happiness, search after, 1 1 . 

Heathen nations more consistent 
than Christian, 1. 

Heart, state of, 8 ; Hardness of, 
9 ; Its possession, 11. 

Heart, custody of, 150 ; The 
fountain of character, 151 ; 
Root of power, 154; The 
king of the intellect, 155 ; 
Dr. Nelson on, 155 ; The 
cause of intellectual blun- 
ders, 157. 

Heart, the controller of action, 
158 ; Illustration from Sou- 
they, 158. 

Heart, the determiner of des- 
tiny, 160 ; How to keep, 
161 ; Must be put in a safe 



place, 161, 163; Kept by 
God, 162 ; Must be watch- 
ed, 163 ; Must be defended, 
163, 164. 

Heavenly employments, 80. 

Heavenly rewards, 81. 

Heaven, title to, 89. 

History, a great teacher, 213. 

History of the race, sad and ap- 
palling, 347. 

Holiness, perfection of, 76, 130. 

Holy Ghost, gift of, 41 ; Influ- 
ences of, 38, 201 ; What it 
is to be filled with, 35, 31- 
37 ; His fulness in the 
Church, 36. 

Humility, 47, 

Human nature, Dr. Arnold upon, 
152. 

Human race one, 233. 

I. 

Irreligion, 38. 

Intellect, a poor thing, 158. 
J, 

Jeremiah, his call, 1. 
Jesus at Bethany, 137. 
Jesus weeping, 138. 
Jesus upon Mount Olivet, 138. 
Jesus, the bread from heaven, 
222. 

Jesus, the mission of, 273. 
Jesus, the burden bearer, 316. 
Jewish Church, her sad condition, 
1—9. 

Judgment, all things brought 

into, 56. 
Just man, 69 ; His works, 59. 
Justification, perfect, 86. 

K. 

Knowledge, perfection of, 71 ; 

Is life, 250. 
Knowledge of the heart and ex« 

perience, 251, 



Index. 



4i7 



Knowledge of God, 250; The ave- 
nues of, 257. 

Knowledge of God moulds our 
character, 257 ; Its influ- 
ence upon human character 
and destiny, 259 ; Brings 
life to the soul, 264 ; Brings 
love, 264. 

L. 

Law, the, 386. 
Life, new, 67. 

Life, purity of, 67 : Brevity of, 
81. 

Light and air, 251. 

Lord, presence of, strengthen- 
ing, 124. 

Love, God's, 266 ; Impartiality 
of, 266 ; Not confined to 
particular forms of goodness, 
267 ; Nor to particular class- 
es of men, 268 ; Its bearing 
on ordinary life, 270 ; Infu- 
ses a religious spirit into the 
world's work, 270 ; It en- 
courages life's weary toilers, 
270 ; Elevates our piety, 
270. 

M. 

Manna, 212 ; Its suitability, 213 ; 
A needed supply, 214 ; A 
suitable supply, 216 ; A 
seasonable supply, 217 ; An 
abundant supply, 219 ; A 
miraculous supply, 221 ; An- 
gels' food, 222 ; A gratuitous 
supply, 223 : Within the 
reach of all, 223. 

Manna, directions concerning it. 
224; Jesus commanded to 
gather early, 224; Regularly, 
225 ; Was to be distributed, 
225. 

Man, his fall, 187 ; Proved by 
human history, 187 ; By 
AA 



animate and inanimate na- 
ture, 187 ; By the operation 
of mind, 188; By mental 
speculation, 188. 

Man alone in paradise, 227. 

Man, his fallen state, 230. 

Man, foolishness of, 14. 

Men of different tribes, 233 ; 
Their different tastes and 
callings, 233 ; How consti- 
tuted, 37. 

Mercy, angels studying, 114. 

Methodist Church in Canada, 45. 

Methodist pulpit, 198. 

Mediators, false, 194. 

Missionaries' work studied by an- 
gels, 120. 

Ministry, salvation clothed, 126. 

Ministers, are they priests? 127 ; 
Must be the subjects of salva- 
tion, 127 ; Must be clothed 
with power to proclaim sal- 
vation, 128. 

Ministry Christian, motive of, 
390. 

Ministerial office, 387. 
Miser, the, 19, 20. 
Morality originates in God, 66. 
Mohammedanism, 10. 

N. 

National piety and prosperity, 

275. 
New birth, 65. 
Necessities, religious, 122. 

O. 

Olivet, Mount, Jesus upon, 138. 
P. 

Paul, his teaching, 84; As an ex- 
positor and example, 85 ; 
Reaching after perfection, 
95 ; His earnest desire, 95 : 
His courageous and irrepres- 
sible determination, 95. 



4i8 



Index. 



Passover, ts origin and nature, 
168. 

Paschal feast, 166. 

Plagues, Egyptian, 169. 

Prayer, blessings sought in, 123. 

Perfection, 84 ; Its nature defi- 
ned, 85 ; Illustrated by 
Scripture, 86. 

Perfection, natural, 68 ; In our 
physical and intellectual 
powers, 69. 

Perfection, Christian, not abso- 
lute, 68. 

Perfection of knowledge, 71. 

Perfection of holiness, 76. 

Perfect felicity, 77. 

Peace, how obtained, 197. 

Pleasure, worldly, 18 (See King, 
20). 

Persecution, benefits of, 25. 
Pressing forward, 97 ; Prize, 

mark of, 95. 
Popery, its growth, 15. 
Positivism, 208. 
Power, Divine, 126. 
Power, 292. 

Powers, great are Christian, 363. 
Probation, our, 187. 
Protestantism, 201. 
Processes, Divine, 354. 
Prophecy, fulfilment of, 359. 
Providence and goodness, 6. 
Purity, Christian, 66. 

R. 

Rationalism, 206. 
Redemption, 243 ; Its vastness, 
99- 

Rectitude of human nature, 63. 

Reformation, 207. 

Regeneration, importance of, 130. 

Religion, 38, 294 ; What it does, 
39 ; Formal, 40 ; Its dev- 
elopments in believers, 58 ; 
glorying in, 291. 

Repentance, 61. 

Rewards, heavenly, 81. 



, Resurrection, 327; glories of, 
145. 

Revivals, Rev. W. L. Thornton 

a promoter of, 53. 
Riches, 293. 
Righteousness, 296, 
Rome, pagan, 206. 
Roman persecutors, 145. 

S. 

Sabbath, Christian, 242 ; And 
the worship of God, 242; 
To be kept holy, 243 ; The 
most remarkable appear- 
ances of our Lord took place 
on, 245 ; Designed to ele- 
vate the Spirit of Man, 245 ; 
Claims of, 245 ; The Jewish, 
246 ; A day of rest, 248. 
Saint Paul, 374. 
I Sectarian exclusiveness, 353. 
Satan destroyed, 144 ; Originator 

of strife, 187. 
Sacrificing, 166. 
Sympathy, 47. 

Strife the result of the fall, 187 ; 
The Father of all things, 
188 ; Spirit of just men 
made perfect, 59 ; Spirit 
Holy, witness of, 65, 262. 
Sovereignty of Christ, 147 ; 
Learn from it our duty to 
him, 147 ; Our security un- 
der His protection, 148 ; 
We are encouraged to ap- 
proach him with confi- 
dence, 149. 
Sufferings of Christ seen of an- 
gels, 106. 

T. 

Teaching, perfection of, 84. 
Temple, building of, 123 ; Dedi- 
cation of, 123. 
Temple, spiritual, 333 ; Founded 
by Christ, 335 ; Not con- 



Index. 



419 



structed of earthly material, 
337 ; Holy, 338 ; The ha- 
bitation of God, 339 ; The 
process of its construction, 
341 ; Gradual and progres- 
sive, 341 ; Carried on by 
Christ, 343 ; Mutual adapta- 
tion of its parts, 343 ; We 
are all builders under God, 
345' 

Tribulation, Gospel view of, 
304 ; Glorying in, 306 ; 
Blessing arising from, 309 ; 
A promoter of Christian life, 
311 ; Advantages of, 25, 

Thornton, Rev. W. L. , 28, 44 ; 
His piety, 51 ; As a student 
of the Bible, 52; His zeal, 
52 ; Careful preparation for 
public duties, 53 ; As a pro- 
moter of revivals, 53 ; He 
delighted in Christian fel- 
lowship, 54 ; His sympathy, 
54 ; His charity, 54 ; Was 
beloved by all, 54. 

Truth, unfolded in its relation 
to man, 116. 

Truth, Christian, its triumphs, 
202. 



Truth, departure from, 17. 
U. 

Uzzah, his sad end, 135; Results 
of, 136. 

Union of Church and State, 202. 
Union, Christian necessity 
204. 

Unity and diversity, 232. 
Unity of life in Christ, 201. 
Uniformity in religion. 201. 
Ungodly, their pursuits, 1 7. 

V. 

Variety, endless, 78. 

W. 

Water, living, 6. 
Wesley, his monument, 199. 
Wesleyan revival, 207. 
Wisdom, 292. 

Wicked, punishment of, 386. 
Woman contrasted with man, 
259. 

World's ways, 12. 



THE END. 



